EVA Versus
by BZRich64
Summary: Shinji is thrust into the life of an Evangelion pilot as he has to fight Angels to save the world. Along the way he must learn to work together with his fellow pilots. Along the way they will have to deal with intrigue, mysterious laptops, their own fragile mental states, death, angelic talk show hosts and more. Will they manage to get to the bottom what what's actually going on?
1. Chapter 1

It is the year 2015 and a young boy only 14 years of age had just reached the outskirts of the city known as Tokyo-3. The boy's name was Shinji Ikari and although he did not know it at the time, he had just started on his path towards saving the world.

Shinji looked around trying to find the woman who was supposed to be picking him up, but he couldn't find any sign of her. He decided to walk over to a nearby payphone and try to call the woman with the number he had been given. Shinji picked up the receiver and held it to his ear as he started to dial the number, but all he could hear through it was static.

"Great." Shinji muttered sarcastically to himself. "The line's dead."

He looked around some more and noticed plumes of smoke drifting over from further in the city. It was then a large, looming form of some sort of giant, dark blue creature standing as tall as the skyscrapers around it rose up from the city's skyline. The creature's body was covered in bony protrusions, including an exposed rib cage encasing some sort of giant red orb, three fingers on each hand, leg plating, giant mounds jutting from its shoulders and spikes surrounding its face, which resembled a mask shaped to represent a bird's skull.

Shinji was about to start panicking from the overwhelming sight of the creature when his attention was pulled away from it by a blue sports car that drove up in front of him. The driver's side window pulled down to reveal a woman with long, dark blue hair. She was wearing a red jacket over a simple black dress and a large, white cross necklace hanging around her neck.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." She said. "I'm Misato Katsuragi, but you probably recognize me from the photo I sent with your dad's letter."

"Yeah, about that," Shinji said with a nervous tone to his voice, "I don't think that was really an appropriate picture to send."

Misato gave Shinji a look of confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Shinji held up the photo and explained. "Well, I'm just saying, this picture feels a bit too 'adult' to be sending to a stranger, let alone one that's underage. What, with the seductive clothes and-"

Misato cut him off by snatching the photo from him as her face turned a bright red.

"That… that wasn't the photo you were supposed to get…" she stuttered, "that one was supposed to go to someone else… you were supposed to get one with clothes."

Hesitantly, Shinji walked around the car and sat down in the passenger side seat despite his misgivings about the situation.

"So… uh, Shinji… how are you?" The words seemed to stumble out of Misato's mouth, as she was still extremely embarrassed because of the photo mix-up.

"Well, let's see: I'm about to meet my father, who I haven't seen or heard from in nearly ten years and might as well be a complete stranger to me; the woman taking me to see him _is_ a complete stranger who sent me a dirty picture of herself as a form of introduction; and to top it off, the city we're driving into is under attack by a giant monster. This isn't exactly my best day, but I can't say that it's my worst, either."

"Wait?" Misato glanced as Shinji. "What could be worse than-"

"Don't ask." He cut her off before she could finish her question.

The two spent the rest of their ride in awkward silence until they finally reached their destination: the lowest level of a deserted indoor parking structure.

"What are we doing here?" Shinji asked the woman who he was starting to suspect was not actually the woman who was supposed to pick him up but in fact a deranged psychopath.

Misato flipped a switch on her dashboard and suddenly one of the walls opened up. On the other side of the wall there was another parking lot, though this one was filled with cars. She pulled into an empty spot, turned the car off and the two got out. Shinji followed Misato to an elevator as she pushed the down button.

After a few minutes of waiting, the elevator doors opened and the two got in. Misato pulled out an ID card and swiped it through the control terminal and a retinal scanner popped out and scanned Misato's eye. The small, red light next to it turned green and the elevator began its descent.

The elevator dropped faster than Shinji had ever known an elevator to go before. Soon Shinji realized the sides of the elevator were made out of what looked like glass. This fact did not reassure Shinji, and in fact, it only enforced his growing belief that either he had gone crazy or he was about to die. Most likely both.

After a few seconds, the elevator dropped into an underground cavern of some sort. At first glance, it seemed almost as if they were back above ground again but further inspection showed the ceiling of a cave where the sky should be, which had an entire city's worth of skyscrapers hanging from it like they were stalactites. Below them was a forest, with a huge pyramid in its center and a lake off in the distance.

"What is this place?" Shinji wondered aloud in amazement.

"This is the GeoFront, Shinji, headquarters of NERV."

The elevator came to a sudden stop that nearly threw Shinji off of his feet but barely seemed to affect Misato. The doors opened to reveal that a blonde woman in a white lab coat was waiting for them.

"It's about time that you got here." She said to Misato before turning her attention to Shinji. "Hello, you must be Shinji Ikari. I'm Doctor Akagi, the head scientist here at NERV."

"What kind of scientist are you?" Shinji asked.

"Yes."

"That didn't answer my question."

Dr. Akagi ignored Shinji's comment and started walking towards the entrance of the main building, clearly meaning for Shinji to follow her.

"Here at NERV, we strive to make the world a better place by protecting it monsters like the one attacking the city above."

"Good job with that."

As they walked deeper into the facilities, Dr. Akagi gave a long speech about the history of NERV, but Shinji didn't really catch any of it. Eventually, they ended up on a catwalk above a large room that held what Shinji felt was the most surprising thing he'd seen all day, which was saying a lot.

"This is Evangelion Unit-01." Dr. Akagi proudly proclaimed as she waved her arm towards the giant purple robot.

Unit-01 stood over 250 feet tall, with its head being just above the catwalk they were standing on. It had a demonic look about it, with a single horn protruding from its head and massive shoulder pylons. The robot's color scheme was primarily purple with a lot of black sections and a few yellow highlights on its neck and upper chest. Some of the black panels were reflective and looked like they were probably meant to light up.

Shinji's attention was then drawn away from Unit-01 by the sound of someone clearing their throat up above. He looked to see another room overlooking the one they were in. Inside the room were two men looking down on him. One was an older man Shinji had never seen before, while the other was a dark-haired, bearded man wearing orange-tinted sunglasses indoors. Shinji had not seen this man in eleven years, yet was somehow able to identify him instantly.

"Father."

"Shinji." Gendo Ikari's voice had a bitter tone to it. It was clear he did not care to see his son again after all this time. "I will make this as clear as I can. You are going to pilot the Evangelion and use it to fight and destroy the Angel attacking the city above.

"What Angel?"

"That's what we call the monsters like the one above." Dr. Akagi clarified.

"That sounds like a terrible name to call a monster. It seems disrespectful to-"

"It doesn't matter what you think of the name." Gendo interrupted.

"I wanted to call them Kaiju." Misato muttered in a barely audible whisper.

"But why do you want me to do it?" Shinji asked his father.

"I don't _want_ you to do anything. Unfortunately for us all, you are the only one who can do it right now. The only other who can pilot it is Rei Ayanami." Gendo made a beckoning motion towards one of the doors and a couple of medical personnel came in with a stretcher, stopping right next to Shinji.

On the stretcher was a girl with bright blue hair and eerily pale skin. The girl was covered in bandages, her arm was in a sling and she was visibly having trouble breathing. One of her eyes was covered up in bandages while the other eye, a bright piercing red, stared up at Shinji.

"If Rei were to pilot Unit-01 right now, she would die. Her life is in danger just being here instead of in her hospital room right now."

"Then why did you bring her here?"

"To make a point. Dr. Akagi will show you how to get ready." With that, Gendo walked off, the older man following him.

"The boy has a point." The older man, Kozo Fuyutsuki, told Gendo. "You could have just had a video monitor displaying her current condition, or even just shown him a picture. There was no need to physically bring her out here."

Gendo pulled out a flask from his jacket pocket and took a long drink.

"I have my reasons." He said when he was finished.

"Yes, but I fear those reasons are just the alcohol clouding your judgment."

* * *

Shinji was taken to a locker room where he was told he was to change into the 'plug suit' inside locker #3. He opened up the locker and found a strange blue and white outfit inside of it.

"Am I really supposed to wear this?" Shinji turned around and saw he was the only one there. "Well, at least I get some privacy while I change."

Shinji found that it fit him perfectly, which he found more than a bit disturbing. After a moment, he walked back out where Misato and Dr. Akagi were waiting for him.

"How did you know my measurements to make this?" He asked.

"We didn't." Dr. Akagi answered him. "The plug suit is designed to form to the wearer. It could fit anyone as long as they can get it on."

Shinji was brought to the area behind Unit-01's neck, where there was a large capsule sticking out of it that Shinji was told to climb into. The "Entry Plug", as Dr. Akagi called it, was filled with a strange orange liquid and Shinji thought for a moment he was going to drown when the entry hatch closed behind him.

" _Take a deep breath and let the LCL fill your lungs."_ Misato's voice came over the radio. _"It has a high oxygen level that will allow you to breathe once it fills your lungs."_

Shinji, figuring that he would drown either way, took a deep breath and found that he could, in fact, breathe normally despite being submerged. He swam over to a seat in front of the control panel and sat down in it. The space in front of Shinji suddenly lit up with Unit-01's view and the light up panels on the outside turned a bright green. It was at this point that Shinji realized that he had no idea how to actually control the Evangelion.

" _You're probably wondering how to pilot the Eva."_ Misato spoke over the radio. _"Well, unfortunately, we don't have time to teach you that right now so you're going to need to figure it out on your own."_

And on that less than encouraging note, Evangelion Unit-01, with Shinji inside of it, was launched up to the surface of Tokyo-3 at breakneck speed.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

Shinji grabbed onto the joysticks to either side of the control panel and moved them both forward to see if that would make it move. It worked too well, causing Unit-01 to run at top speed and crash head first into the Angel. Both Eva and Angel were knocked down from the impact. As the Angel stood back up again, Shinji felt he could hear its speech, which sounded as if it were coming from inside of his own head.

 **-I am Sachiel. All who oppose the will of GOD shall be vanquished.-**

The Angel grabbed Unit-01 by its shoulder pylons and threw the Eva over its head and into a nearby building. Shinji tried to get the Eva back up onto its feet but was unable to do so before Sachiel came up to him and grabbed Unit-01 by the face. A blade of bright red energy shot out from the Angel's hand, stabbing Unit-01 through its left eye. Shinji let out a sound somewhere in-between a scream and a roar as he felt a huge surge of pain shoot through his own eye as if he were the one that had that had been stabbed.

" _Sorry about that."_ Misato's voice came over the radio again. _"We forgot to activate Unit-01's pain inhibitor. It's on now, so you shouldn't need to worry about that happening again."_

This news would have cheered Shinji up a little more if he wasn't still writhing in pain. He couldn't see anything out of his left eye, and he was pretty sure it was bleeding, though it was hard to tell as blood blended in with the LCL. Regaining his composure somewhat, Shinji tried messing with the controls, but Unit-01 proved unresponsive.

As Sachiel pulled its arm back for another blow, Unit-01 suddenly began to move on its own. The green-lit panels over the Eva's body turned bright red as the Eva grabbed Sachiel's face without any prompting from Shinji. It was Sachiel's turn to scream as Unit-01 suddenly grabbed it by the face as ripped it off. A new face grew out from where the old one had been, but before the Angel could do anything more, Unit-01 held the removed bird skull-like face in both hands and began using it to bash in the strange red orb sticking out of Sachiel's chest until the orb cracked apart and shattered into pieces.

Sachiel let out another scream as its whole body began to light up and the Angel exploded into a white, cross-shaped explosion. The force of the blast sent Unit-01 flying back through two skyscrapers before crashing into a third, knocking Shinji unconscious in the process.

* * *

Gendo sat in Central Dogma, the command center of NERV. His seat was on a raised platform in the center of the room, and he had his hands clasped in front of his face, covering his mouth. Fuyutsuki stood diligently beside him, as he always did.

"He actually did it." Gendo said. "That was more than I expected from the boy."

"Then what did you expect?"

Instead of answering Fuyutsuki's question, Gendo took another long drink from his flask. Down below them, some of the other members of NERV cheered over the success against the Angel, while others worried over Shinji's loss of consciousness or Unit-01 having acted on its own.

"This may actually go according to plan after all." Gendo muttered ominously to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**-Welcome to 'Angel Talk with Sachiel'. I'm your host, Sachiel, and joining me today we have none other than the Chosen One himself, Shinji Ikari!-**

"What's going on?" Shinji asked as he looked around. He found himself sitting in a surprisingly comfortable couch on a stage beside the polished wooden desk that a now human-sized Sachiel was sitting behind. As far as Shinji could tell there was nothing but darkness outside the stage.

 **-So, Shinji, can I call you Shinji?-** Sachiel asked while leaning on his table towards Shinji.

"I guess…" Shinji hesitated.

 **-Great! Shinji, can you tell us what it's like to be the Chosen One?-**

"I don't know what you're talking about."

 **-Oh ho, so humble. How about you tell the audience what it's like to pilot an Evangelion?-**

Shinji still couldn't see any sort of audience, but he answered anyway. "Well, I'm not really sure. I don't really know how to actually do that yet. It is weird having to breathe liquid though. It kind of makes my lunges sting a bit. Where are we?"

 **-Why, this is your mind of course.-**

Shinji looked at Sachiel in confusion. "My mind? Why is my mind a talk show floating in the middle of an abyss? And where did this couch and your desk come from?"

 **-Do you like it?"** Sachiel asked enthusiastically as he rubbed his hands along the dark wooden surface. **-This desk was hand carved from Yggdrasil itself. Completely one of a kind.-**

"Uh…" Shinji wasn't sure how to respond to that. "It's a very nice desk, I guess."

 **-Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have right now. But we'll be back right after these messages!-** Sachiel pointed his finger towards where a camera would probably be if there was one, and suddenly everything went dark.

* * *

Shinji sat up as he woke up in a bed in an unfamiliar hospital room. He looked over to the side and noticed a mirror where he saw his reflection. He had a bandage across his head covering his left eye, much like the one he saw over Rei's eye the day before. Or at least, he assumed it was the day before. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious for. He was about to get up and try to leave when Misato entered the room.

"It's good to see you're finally awake." She said. "It's been almost three days."

"I was unconscious for three days?" Shinji asked in a daze. "That can't be good."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be fine once you finish healing. So, what were you dreaming about? Misato asked in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.

"Well, let's see…" Shinji tried to recall the events of his dream. "I was being interviewed in some kind of talk show, with Sachiel as the host. He said something about me being the Chosen One and he had a really nice desk."

"Who's Sachiel?" Misato asked.

"The Angel that I fought." Shinji gave her a confused look.

"You gave the Angel a name?" Misato seemed concerned now.

"No, I didn't. That's what it called itself."

"Angels can't speak, Shinji. It must have just been a part of your dream."

Shinji was about to argue that it had announced its name during the battle so it couldn't have just been a part of his dream, but then his father walked into the room.

"You finally decided to get up, have you?" He said. "Then I guess it's time that you get moved out of here and into your new living accommodations."

"Actually, sir," Misato said, "I was thinking that maybe Shinji could stay with me."

"That is completely out of the question." Gendo said flatly.

"But a kid Shinji's age shouldn't have to be on his own." Misato tried to argue.

"And what makes you think you're qualified to take care of a child, let alone mine."

"But…" Misato started to object.

"I hate to say this," Shinji spoke up, "but I agree with my father. I don't really know you very well and so far you've made me rather uncomfortable to be around you."

Misato looked downtrodden to hear this and tried to continue her argument, but it was no use. Shinji was sent off to his new apartment as soon as he was able to get back onto his feet.

* * *

Shinji stood at the entrance to his new home. It was a three bedroom apartment with two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room and direct access to the building's roof.

"I've never seen an apartment this big before." He said to himself. "Is this really where I'm going to live?"

"Yes, you do."

Shinji was so startled by the sudden appearance of the blue-haired girl from before that thought his heart had stopped for about half a second. Her arm was still in a sling and she still had the bandage over her right eye, but she otherwise seemed to be doing much better than before.

"Your name's Rei, right? What are you doing here?"

"I live here." She responded.

"Oh, sorry." Shinji said in embarrassment. "I thought this was supposed to be my apartment."

"It is. All Evangelion pilots within Tokyo-3 will be living here."

Shinji pondered that statement for a moment.

"I thought we were the only two who could pilot the Evangelions."

"There are currently three chosen Evangelion pilots. I am the first; Asuka Sohryu, who currently resides in the nation of Germany, is the second; and you are the third. More pilots will be chosen in the future."

"So…" Shinji tried to think of something to change the subject to. "Where did you live before this?"

"I lived in the old apartment that was meant for the Evangelion pilots. It was destroyed in Sachiel's attack on the city.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"It was not your fault. The building was one of the first to be destroyed in the attack before you even reached the city."

Something donned on Shinji.

"Wait a minute, you just referred to the Angel as Sachiel."

"Yes. That was the Angel's name, which he announced when he first arrived, and again when you battled him."

"But Misato said that the Angels can't speak."

"Normal humans like Director Katsuragi cannot hear the Angel's speech, so they assume that the Angels cannot speak."

"Are you saying we aren't human?"

"No, we are not. Our bonds with the Evangelions changes our physiology so that we can control them more efficiently. One of the side effects is that we can hear and understand the Angel's speech. Now, if you are done asking questions, I have things I must attend to tonight. I will return in the morning to escort you to your new school. My room is the one on the left of the hallway, so I recommend you choose one of the others to stay in. Although even if you chose to stay in my room for whatever reason, I would not care as I do not spend much time there anyway."

Rei walked away, leaving Shinji to stand there alone in confusion. "Wait a minute, new school? How long am I supposed to be here?" He just had to shrug it off for now and walked to the second room on the right side of the hallway, where he set his backpack on the bed, then laid down on the covers next to it.

* * *

Shinji wasn't sure when exactly he had fallen asleep, but he was woken up the next morning by Rei, her hair yet and she wearing nothing but a towel.

"Why are you…?" He started to ask.

"I have just been in the shower and came to wake you up on my way to get dressed, which I will do while you get ready for school. Your textbooks are on the dining room table and there is a school uniform in the dresser over there." She pointed to the side of the room where a plain wooden dresser was sitting. Then she turned and left without another word.

"Weird girl." He muttered when he heard the door close on the other end of the hall. "But I have had stranger roommates."

With that, Shinji got up and emptied out his backpack of non-school supplies. He changed into his new uniform and noted that it wasn't really any different than his regular clothes. After he finished getting dressed, he walked out of the dining room where Rei was waiting, now fully clothed in her own school uniform. On the table, there was a stack of books next to a plate with eggs and toast on it and a glass of what looked like orange juice.

Rei instructed Shinji to eat, which he did. As he took a drink from the glass, he spit it back into the cup. "What is this?"

"It is LCL mixed with orange-flavored Tang."

"Why?" Shinji asked.

"It makes it easier for your body to absorb the LCL and orange mixes with the taste better than other flavors."

"No, I meant why is there LCL in it."

"It will help you synchronize with Evangelion Unit-01 more effectively."

Shinji just gave Rei a strange look and downed the LCL as fast as he could. He could barely taste the orange over the blood-like flavor of the LCL, which Shinji hadn't even noticed when he was fully submerged in it only a few days ago because he had been too occupied by everything going on at the time.

"It could use more flavoring." Shinji said as he got up and put the books in his bag.

"Your suggestion will be noted." Rei walked over to the door and picked up her own backpack that had been placed next to it. "Follow me."

Shinji followed Rei down several blocks before they finally reached the school.

"NERV Middle School." Shinji read the sign outside. "Wait does that mean that NERV owns the school?"

"Yes." Rei answered.

"Why?"

Rei didn't answer Shinji's question, instead leading him inside and to a classroom.

"This is where we will be attending class. Our teacher is Mr. Furusei."

"Furusei? I've never heard that before. Is it even a name?"

Rei opened the door and Shinji followed her into the classroom. It was a pretty typical classroom, with desks aligned in five rows of four, facing the teacher's desk and a large chalkboard. Bookshelves, posters and the like lined the walls and there was a large window on the opposite wall from the doorway.

"Hello." An old man who was obviously supposed to be the teacher greeted Shinji as he entered. "You must be the new student. I'm Mr. Furusei. Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"

"Hello." He said nervously to the class while raising his hand in a week wave. "My name's Shinji Ikari."

"Very good." Mr. Furusei said. "Now why don't you find an empty seat?"

That was actually even easier said than done. Of the dozen or so desks set up in the room, only around half were actually filled. Rei had sat down in the third chair back on the left-most row, right in front of the window. Shinji decided to sit in the empty spot next to her. He didn't know her very well, but that was still more than he knew anyone else here.

After Shinji was seated, the teacher began a class about the history of Earth in the past fifteen years since Second Impact nearly destroyed the world. He explained how a giant meteor had struck Antarctica which caused massive ecological damage and flooding across the planet, wiping out over 2 billion people in the first day alone. He was just getting to the wars fought in Second Impact's aftermath when another kid walked into the room.

"'Sup teach." He said as he casually walked into the room and sat down at an empty desk.

"Ah, Toji. So glad to see that you could finally join us for the day." Mr. Furusei said in an ever-so-slightly bitter tone, before continuing his lesson.

Eventually, the lunch bell rang and Mr. Furusei left the classroom. Though strangely none of the students did. One girl who had been sitting at the front of the class walked over to Shinji and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you Shinji." She said. "My name's Hikari Horaki, the class president. If you ever need any help with anything, just come see me."

"Wait a minute…" The kid who had arrived late, Toji, said as he heard her. "You're the new kid?"

"Yeah." Shinji said.

Toji angrily got up from his chair, walked over to Shinji and punched him in the face.

"TojI!" Hikari cried out. "What are you doing?"

"If this is the new kid, then that means he has the one in the robot last night! My sister was in one of the buildings that were destroyed in the battle. You put my sister in the hospital, you piece of garbage!"

Toji yelled his last sentence while motioning to punch Shinji, but Hikari and another boy grabbed his arms to hold him back, while Rei suddenly stood up from her chair and stepped in front of him in what seemed like a single, solid motion while some of the other students started to chant 'Fight!' over and over again.

"In my defense," Shinji said weakly, "They never actually told me how to pilot the thing, and I wasn't even in control of it for, like, half the fight."

That just made Toji even angrier, causing him to wrestle free from the others' grasps and try to hit Shinji again. Fortunately for Shinji, Rei made a swift chop to Toji's neck with her good arm and the boy crashed onto the floor.

"He should be awake again in about 10 minutes." Rei said as she walked back to her desk.

"Sorry about that." Hikari said shyly while putting her hand on the back of her head in an embarrassed gesture. "Toji has… issues."

"My name's Kensuke." Said the other boy that had tried to hold Toji back. "Kensuke Aida."

This was Shinji's first full day in Tokyo-3, at least while being conscious and he could already tell that it was going to be a _long_ stay. Hopefully, this would be the end of the crazy stuff and things would become normal soon, but Shinji wasn't going to hold his breath. It was clear that things were never going to be normal again.


	3. Chapter 3

"What is it with blue haired women taking me to abandoned buildings lately?" Shinji mused as Rei took him to an empty subway station after school. "This is the second time in a week."

"This is one of the entrances to NERV." Rei explained as she pulled out a key card and slid it along a slot for a bus pass. The turnstile they were standing in front of unlocked, letting them through, where they walked up to an elevator much like the one Shinji had ridden with Misato the other day. "You will receive your own NERV staff card after we arrive, so you will be able to get to NERV headquarters on your own from now on."

The two rode the elevator down. The view of the GeoFront was just as spectacular as Shinji remembered, though something seemed different.

"Where are all of the buildings at the top?" He asked.

"Tokyo-3 has been fitted with advanced technology to help keep damage to a minimum when Angels attack. One of those features is that the buildings can move underground during an attack. There is no need for that right now, so the buildings are all above ground right now."

"But there were buildings on the surface when Sachiel attacked." Shinji pointed out.

"Sachiel appeared in Tokyo-3 with no warning and damaged some of the city's defense systems before the entire city could be evacuated underground, leading to some of the buildings being unable to descend to safety. Those broken systems are being repaired right now in hopes that they will be working by the time the next Angel attacks."

Shinji looked around a bit more as they continued their decent and noticed something he hadn't seen last time.

"What's that?" He pointed to a ring of light, around four to five feet in diameter, flying in a circle above the giant pyramid that served as NERV's central building.

"I do not know." Rei replied. "It appeared there when you defeated Sachiel. NERV's scientists have so far been unable to determine what it is or what purpose it serves."

The elevator reached the end of its decent and the doors opened. Misato and Dr. Akagi were waiting for them. A small frown creased Misato's lips but quickly turned into a forced-looking smile. Meanwhile, Dr. Akagi had an expression of mild boredom that she didn't bother trying to hide.

"Hi, Shinji!" Miasto greeted the boy. "Welcome back to NERV. Today you'll be starting your training, but first, we'll need to get you a security card. Now, if you would follow me…" She turned around and started walking away. Meanwhile, Rei and Dr. Akagi went off somewhere else.

"I feel like all I've been today is following people." Shinji muttered to himself as he walked after Misato. "That and being punched for something I didn't really do."

Misato had Shinji fill out a form with information such as his name, birthdate and height. Then she took him to get his picture taken and gave him his newly printed NERV security card.

"3rd Pilot." Shinji read off his official title as shown on the card. "Rei mentioned that there was another pilot, but said she was in Germany. Do Angels show up there to?"

"We don't know for sure, yet." Misato answered. "The first one arrived fifteen years ago in Antarctica, and the one you fought was only the second, so we don't know what their pattern is yet. We have her there as a precaution."

"Fifteen years…" Shinji repeated. "Wait, do the Angels have something to do with Second Impact?"

Misato didn't answer, instead leading Shinji back to the locker room where he had changed into his plug suit on his first day in Tokyo-3.

"I'm getting tired of asking questions and not getting answers." Shinji muttered to himself as he tossed his backpack in his locker and got changed while Misato waited outside.

As Shinji pulled on his Plugsuit, he happened to turn around just as Rei entered the room. Her arm was no longer in a sling and the bandage around her eye was gone.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her, startled by her sudden appearance.

"Now that I have recovered from my injuries, I will be resuming my Evangelion training." She explained.

"I understand that part, but I thought this was the boy's locker room."

"There is only one locker room for Evangelion pilots."

"Oh. I guess I'll give you some privacy then." Shinji dashed out of the locker room as fast as he could without actually running. Outside he found not only Misato but also Dr. Akagi waiting for him.

"So what now?" He asked them. "Are we off to Unit-01 again?"

"Yes and no." Misato said. "We'll be using a test entry plug today. It will be hooked up to Unit-01, but you won't be controlling the Eva itself."

* * *

After entering the test entry plug, Shinji took a deep breath of the LCL and let it fill his lungs while he swam over to the controls. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to the feeling. Shinji put his hands on the control panel and the inside of the plug lit up like it had before. The screen in front of him showed that he was standing outside in Tokyo-3.

"I thought you said I wasn't going in the Eva." Shinji said.

A smaller screen opened up in the corner of the larger one, showing Misato as she spoke into a headset. Dr. Akagi was sitting next to her.

" _This is just a simulation."_ She explained. _"Now, I want you to start by walking to the other end of the city. Move the left joystick gently forward."_

Shinji did as he was told and the simulated screen showed that Unit-01 was walking forward at a leisurely pace. He continued to walk forward until he approached a building in his way.

" _Now turn the joystick to the side to turn."_

Shinji was able to make his way to his destination without any trouble.

" _Good, now for the next test."_

The image of Tokyo-3 in front of Shinji faded away and was replaced with a nearby hillside, with an orange and white Evangelion materializing across from him. This new Eva was similar in design to Unit-01 apart from the color scheme, though there were some design changes and the head was a completely different shape, with only one eye.

" _Unit-00 reporting in."_ A window popped up on the top left of Shinji's screen. This one showed Rei in an entry plug.

" _Good."_ Misato said. _"For this part, we'll be doing some team exercises."_

"Unit-00?" Shinji questioned. "I thought Unit-01 was the only Eva we had."

"It was damaged in a training accident not too long ago and is still under repair." Misato explained. "That's actually the reason we needed you to use Unit-01 against the last Angel. It's also why we will now be using these test plugs."

* * *

After they finished with their training for the day, Shinji felt he was already starting to get the hang of controlling an Evangelion. He climbed out of the test entry plug as Rei got out of the one next to him. As they both got onto the ground, Misato and Dr. Akagi walked up to them.

"Very good, Shinji!" Misato said. "You're really getting the hang of this faster than we thought you would. Now puke into this bucket."

Shinji stared at Misato in confusion as she held out two metal buckets, one of which Rei took from her.

"It's to get the LCL out of your lungs." She explained as Rei did just that into her bucket.

Shinji took the bucket from her and tried to get all of the LCL he could into it, which was a very weird sensation.

"Well, that's not very pleasant." Shinji commented.

"Unfortunately LCL is required to pilot the Evangelions properly. It helps to make sure you have enough oxygen, and helps increase your synchronization with it." Misato explained.

"Rei used that term this morning. What do you mean when you talk about being synchronized with it?"

"In addition to the physical controls, the Evangelions are affected by a neural connection to their pilots." It was Dr. Akagi's turn to explain. "That's why only a select few such as yourself and Rei are able to do it. Because you have the proper mental frequency to connect with them properly."

Shinji raised his hand up to the bandage on his left eye. "And that would be why I felt the damage from when Unit-01 was stabbed."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Misato said, embarrassed. "We normally have a pain inhibitor to stop that sort of thing from happening, but we didn't think you would need it. How much something like that affects the pilot is based on their synchronization rate. We didn't think you would have a high enough synch rate on your first time in an Eva to even feel pain from it, let alone have your eye damaged like that."

"We were only expecting around a 40% synchronization rate at the highest." Dr. Akagi clarified. "Asuka Sohryu is able to get to around 75% in her training and Rei as able to get up to 80% normally. You reached 90% synchronization, which was completely unheard of at that point."

"I don't even know if I'm going to be able to see from my left eye again!" Shinji yelled in an uncharacteristically loud tone of voice for him.

Misato turned to Dr. Akagi. "You didn't tell him?"

"I haven't had the chance." The doctor replied.

"Tell me what?" Shinji asked.

"The nerves in your eye were to heavily damaged to be repaired. I had to replace it with a cybernetic one. In fact, you can take the bandages off now. Your new eye should be fully functional now.

Shinji tore off his bandages and, sure enough, he could see clearly through his left eye. In fact, his vision seemed even better than it was before.

"As I am technically responsible for the loss of your eye, I made sure to give you the most advanced artificial ocular sensor I could." Dr. Akagi went on. "It also has night vision, x-ray and infrared modes. I'll need to teach you how to use it properly before you can access those features, though."

Shinji just stood there in stunned silence for a moment before Rei snapped him out of it.

"If that is all for the day, then we should get ready to leave."

* * *

"Does NERV actually own the town?" Shinji asked Rei after they made their way back to the surface.

"Technically, no." She replied. "NERV owns a number of important buildings throughout Tokyo-3 and is responsible for its defensive systems, but it does not own the city itself."

"Where does NERV even get its funding? It seems like they'd need a lot of money to be able to do everything it seems to do."

"NERV receives its finances through government funding from the United Nations and Japan, as well as military contracts from various countries and private organizations. There are also ongoing negotiations for corporate sponsorships from a variety of businesses across various industries."

As they continued walking to their apartment, Shinji decided that now would probably be a good time to get to know his new roommate better.

"So…" He started to say. "What did you do before becoming a pilot?"

"I have always been a pilot." Rei answered, as emotionless as always.

"I meant before you became an Evangelion pilot." Shinji clarified, confused by that statement.

"I know what you meant."

Shinji wasn't sure what to make of her response, so he decided to take a different line of questioning.

"What do you do for fun?"

"I do whatever I am ordered to. Fun is irrelevant."

This confused Shinji even more, so he decided to go for something more basic next.

"Can you at least tell me what your full name is?"

"I am designated as Rei D-" She suddenly cut herself off. "My name is Rei Ayanami."

Shinji noted the midsentence change in her answer but decided to not let her know he noticed it. She was clearly hiding a lot and it was not his place to pry out information she didn't want him to know. Although this would probably make working with the girl harder, let alone living with her.

"We are here." Rei said as the reached the entrance to their apartment building.

The two entered their shared home and Shinji went into the kitchen to see what they had to eat. Shinji wasn't expecting there to be very much, but he was wrong. The kitchen was actually very well stocked and Shinji decided he was going to make something for dinner. After all, cooking was one of the only things in life Shinji felt that he was actually good at.

"Do you have any allergies or foods you just don't like?" He asked Rei.

"I cannot eat any form of meat." Rei replied.

"Okay then," Shinji muttered to himself as he bent down to one of the cupboards. "Real meat is kind of a luxury these days anyway, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. This should be fun.


	4. Chapter 4

Shinji looked up, out the window as the bell rang for school to be out for the day. It had been about a month since he had started there and so far he was doing fairly well. His grades were as high as they usually were at his old school and he felt like he was fitting in fairly well with the other students. There was only one problem.

"Shinji!" Toji stormed up to Shinji's seat. The other students looked over at them nervously as Rei prepared to defend Shinji from an attack. But rather than try to hit Shinji, Toji raised up his hand in a gesture of apparent goodwill instead. "I'm not here to start a fight again. I just wanted to let you know something."

"What?"

"My sister just got out of the hospital today." Toji said. "She… she's made a full recovery."

"That's good to hear." Shinji responded.

"I know I we haven't gotten along so far. Because I blamed you for everything that happened with that. But I realized… Well, I know now it wasn't really your fault. That monster would have wrecked the building anyway."

"Okay then." Shinji was genuinely surprised by this. "I accept your apology, I guess."

"Hit me!" Toji suddenly yelled at Shinji.

"What?"

"It's the only way we can be even. I hit you, so now you have to hit me." He pointed to his cheek. "Come on, right here."

Shinji stared at Toji in wonder. "Shouldn't we, you know, at least do this outside?"

"I guess so." Toji responded.

The two made their way to the school courtyard, with Rei keeping close to Shinji and some of the other students following them to see what happens. When they got there, Toji turned to Shinji and braced himself for the impact. Shinji looked down at his own fist, unsure if he should actually punch him or not. He finally decided that he should and his fist went straight into Toji's face. The blow was harder than either of them was expecting it to be and Toji stumbled back a few steps from the impact. Their audience gasped and waited in anticipation for Toji's reaction.

"There." Toji said as he stood up straight again. "Now we're even and we can start over again. The name's Toji Suzuhara."

Shinji grabbed Toji's outstretched hand.

"I'm Shinji Ikari. It's, um, good to meet you, I guess?"

* * *

Gendo overlooked the NERV Command Center from his seat, watching a few technicians working down below. After a while stood up and yelled down at one of them.

"Hyuga!"

Makoto Hyuga quickly got and turned around, standing at attention.

"A word of advice," Gendo said to the scared technician. "If your computer screen can be seen from your boss's seat, then you should actually do your job instead of playing games."

An embarrassed Hyuga slumped back down into his seat and turned off his game to get back to work. The room remained relatively silent after that for a few minutes, but then that silence was interrupted as an alarm sounded and the large view screens lining the walls were lit up with large blue warning signals.

"We have a confirmed Blood Type Blue." Shouted one of the technicians, Maya Ibuki. "An Angel is approaching the edge of the City.

Gendo stood up from his seat and walked over to the railing separating the platform he was on from the lower level the others were working on. "Initiate evacuation protocols. Call in the pilots."

"Evacuation protocols initiated." Reported Shigeru Aoba, the third technician.

"Unit-00 hasn't finished repairs yet, Commander." Maya reminded Gendo.

"Then I guess we'll have to rely on only Shinji again." Gendo slumped back into his seat and pulled out his flask. "Hopefully he doesn't let us down again."

"But he didn't let us down last time." Fuyutsuki pointed out.

"That's what I said."

* * *

Shinji and Rei were walking over to the subway station to report in at NERV for their regular Eva training when they both received alerts on their phones. Rei checked her's immediately, while it took Shinji a moment because he needed to reach down to the old Walkman clipped to his belt to pause what he was listening to first.

As Shinji saw the report of a new Angel attack, the buildings around them sank into the ground, giving the two a good view of the giant red Angel coming in from across the other side of the city right before they ran into the underground entrance to the subway station.

"That looks almost nothing like Sachiel did." Shinji commented as they waited for the elevator to make its way down to NERV headquarters.

A few minutes later, Shinji was settling in at Unit-01's controls while Rei had to wait on standby. Unit-01 was quickly lifted up to the surface and the doors to the elevator that carried it up slid open. Shinji guided the Eva outside cautiously.

The Angel had reached the city by this point and was lashing around at the ground with pink energy whips protruding from its claw-like arms. The elongated central body of the Angel was mostly featureless except for the exposed ribcage in its upper half and the Angel's flat head had two eye-like designs on its top, with a red orb at the base of its neck similar to the one Sachiel had in its chest. The Angel looked over towards Unit-01 when it heard the sound of a weapons cache rising from the ground next to the Eva.

 **-I am Shamshel. All who oppose the will of GOD shall be vanquished.-**

The words entered Shinji's mind as he grabbed a gun from the cache and turned to face the Angel. Something he did not know when he had fought Sachiel, but that he had been told during his training was that the Evangelions use so much energy that they had to remain plugged in. Because of that, there was an 'umbilical cable', as it was called, that connected to the back of the Eva and supplied it with energy. The cord had been damaged in the fight with Sachiel, which is part of why the Eva went out of control. As such, he was determined to make sure his power cord was safe this time around.

Shinji began shooting at Shamshel, who deflected the bullets by slashing at them with its whips. Undeterred by this, Shinji grabbed another gun from the cache and started firing at Shamshel with both at once. The Angel was still able to block all of the bullets, so Shinji tried running up the Angel to make it harder for it to avoid being hit. This proved to be a mistake, as it allowed Shamshel to attack Unit-01 directly with one of its energy whips.

Shamshel was able to wrap its left whip around Unit-01's right arm, forcing the gun out of its hand in the process. Shinji tried lifting his other gun to shoot the Angel directly in the orb, or 'Core', as he had been told they were called, which was its weak point. Shamshel was able to predict that he would do that however and grabbed that arm as well, disarming Unit-01.

The two were at a stalemate now. Unit-01 couldn't move because the Angel had the Eva in its grasp, but Shamshel couldn't attack without releasing the Eva and opening itself up to attack. Unfortunately for Shinji, Shamshel was able to figure out a way around this quickly. The Angel started pulling Unit-01 closer to itself, pulling the Eva straight into its ribcage. Shinji hadn't noticed earlier, but the ribs were actually moving around and were now bashing against Unit-01, trying to break through its armor.

In an effort to escape Shamshel's grasp, Shinji started fiddling with the controls to try and escape, in the process causing Unit-01 to raise up its head. Unit-01's horn bumped up against the Angel's core. Shamshel froze up for a split-second before continuing its assault, but Shinji now knew had to defeat it. He raised the Eva's head again, this time with more force. The Angel froze up again, this time for a couple seconds. Shinji then repeatedly bashed Unit-01's horn against Shamshel's core over and over again until finally, the core cracked.

Shamshel shriveled up as its energy whips faded away and the Angel fell dead onto the ground as Unit-01 was freed from its clutches.

* * *

"Good job." Ritsuki told Shinji after he returned from defeating the Angel.

"Thanks." Shinji said after he was finished spitting out the LCL in his lungs. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to get used to the sensation.

"And the Angel's remains actually stayed intact this time." The doctor continued. "That means we can examine it and find out more about the Angels. The core will be especially useful. We were able to collect the fragments of the last Angel's core after your battle with it, but having one mostly intact opens up much more research possibilities."

* * *

"It's just my luck." Misato muttered to herself as she put her phone back into her pocket. "An Angel attacks while I'm stuck here, at this stupid conference."

"Everyone, the Japan Heavy Chemical Industries will now begin demonstrating our new project!" A man announced.

Everyone in the crowd, Misato included, slowly shuffled over to a viewing area that overlooked an old air base. From one of the old airplane hangars, a giant yellow and red robot emerged from the air base. It stood the size of an Evangelion, but with an enlarged upper torso that doubled as its head, and large black cylinders jutted out from behind the robot's shoulders.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Jet Alone!" Announced the man who called everyone over. "The ultimate Angel fighting weapon; Jet Alone runs off of an internal nuclear generator that can keep it running for up to 150 days straight, far surpassing our competition. In addition, Jet Alone has a fully autonomous A.I., meaning that we don't even have to put any human lives at risk when repelling the Angel invaders. And the best part is: this is only the prototype model. The finished Jet Alone will be even stronger, equipped with an N2 engine and an artificial A.T. Field generator of our own design."

With that, Jet Alone began a series of tests designed to showcase its abilities to the viewers and, more importantly, potential investors. Everyone was left highly impressed by the demonstration, even Misato.

"Now that you've seen what she can do, and you know that it isn't even the limits of what our final product will be like, I hope you all take an interest in funding our project." The man said as the demonstration came to a close.

"What's it doing now?" Someone asked the announcer. He looked around to see what they were talking about just in time to see a semi-truck being hurled towards them that fell just short of the building. People began to panic as it became clear that Jet Alone had somehow gone rogue.

"Don't worry!" One man said. "This is just the perfect time to show off _our_ anti-Angel weapon."

From a different airplane hangar emerged another robot. This one was blue, with a bird-like stance and that looked like aspects of a jet plane had been incorporated into its design, or at least been a heavy influence.

"I am Director Kirishima of FuuRai Aerodynamics, and I can assure you that with a human pilot, we can guaranty that the T*RIDEN*T will never go out of control. In fact, I am so confident in its abilities that I have allowed my own daughter to pilot the mech. Isn't that right, Mana?" He spoke the last part into a hand-held radio he was holding.

" _That's right, Dad."_ Came a girl's voice from the other end of the radio. _"Now, watch me take down this oversized trashcan."_

The T*RIDEN*T fired a barrage of missiles from its back at the rampaging Jet Alone. The missile all struck the robot and exploded on impact. It seemed for a moment that the battle had already been won.

" _That was a piece of cake!"_ The pilot said, triumphantly.

However, as the smoke from the explosions cleared, it became clear that Jet Alone did not have so much as a scratch on it.

" _Okay, no problem. I've still got other tricks."_

Before Mana had time to show off any of those tricks, however, Jet Alone suddenly rushed forward and tried to grab the T*RIDEN*T. Mana's reflexes were quick enough to grab Jet Alone's arms with the T*RIDEN*T's own. It seemed to the spectators that the two were locked in combat, but then suddenly the T*RIDEN*T's engines roared to life as it began to lift off the ground while still holding Jet Alone.

"That's right," Director Kirishima announced to the crowd. "T*RIDEN*T is even able to fly. But then again, what would you expect from a company that specializes in aircraft?" He chuckled a bit at his attempt at a joke.

T*RIDEN*T blasted off into the air, carrying Jet Alone with it.

" _And now all I have to do is finish it off."_ Mana explained.

Suddenly, the representative of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries rushed over and snatched the radio from Director Kirishima's hand. "No! Don't! You could accidentally set off Jet Alone's reactor and-"

His warning came too late. Everyone looked on in horror as they saw the explosion high up in the air. But no one was as affected as Director Kirishima, whose confident businessman persona quickly melted away into a distraught father.

"Mana!" He called into the radio as he took it back. "Mana, can you read me! Mana!"

There was no response. They all looked on as the fiery wreckage of the two weapons crashed back down to the ground on chunks. Emergency vehicle rushed in to put out the fire.

Everyone sat in stunned silence for what felt like at least an hour before an emergency technician rushed in.

"The girl is alive!" He yelled to the room. "But just barely. We're taking her to the hospital now. _"_


	5. Chapter 5

When Shinji first came to Tokyo-3, he was only expecting to stay for a couple weeks at most. As such, he felt no reason to pack more than what he could bring in his trusty green backpack. However, as it turned out that Shinji would be staying there indefinitely, it became necessary for Shinji to get someone to send the rest of his stuff over to him. And today was the day that his things would finally arrive.

"Here you go." A man at the Tokyo-3 post office said cheerily as he handed Shinji a pair of suitcases and a duffle bag.

"Thank you." Shinji said graciously as he took the bags. "Although, shouldn't there also be a cello?"

"I'm afraid we never received anything like that." The man said.

"Just great." Shinji muttered to himself. "I guess I'll need to get a new one then."

Shinji slung his duffle bag over his shoulder and wheeled the suitcases outside where Misato was waiting in her car. He put the bags in the car's trunk and got in the passenger seat.

"Is that everything?" Misato asked him as she started the car.

"Just about. Do you know if there happens to be a music shop or something around here?"

"The only one I knew of was destroyed shortly before you got here." She answered. "Although there is a pawn shop near here that sometimes has music stuff. Why?"

"Could we stop by there on the way back?"

"Sure."

Misato drove over to an old, rundown shop, which Shinji went ahead and entered. Various items and knickknacks lined the walls and shelves, most of which looked like it had been there for a very long time.

"What can I do ya for?" A ragged looking old man standing behind the counter said as Shinji looked around.

"I'm looking for a cello. You wouldn't happen to have one right now, would you?"

The old man scratched his scraggly shin for a moment in consideration. "Yeah, I think I do." The man walked over to one of the walls and pulled down the instrument to show Shinji.

"That's a violin." Shinji pointed out.

"Is it?"

"Yes."

"Well, in that case, I don't have one."

Shinji sighed. "I suppose I might as well get it. Always good to learn a new skill, I guess."

The old man hobbled excitedly back to his counter and Shinji pulled out his wallet. He may have been pressured into becoming an Evangelion pilot against his will, but at least they paid him well for it. As Shinji was about to hand over his money to the man to buy the violin, something sitting on the other end of the counter caught his attention.

"What's that?" Shinji pointed to the mysterious black suitcase.

"That? I'm not really sure." The man said. "Some woman sold it to me around a decade or so ago. Haven't been able to open the darn thing, and no one ever wants to buy it."

"I'll take it." The old man was clearly surprised by that, as was Shinji himself who had no idea why he wanted the black suitcase.

Shinji bought the violin and the case and went back outside. He put the violin in the backseat of Misato's car and climbed back into the passenger seat with the suitcase.

"What's that?" Misato asked as she started the car again.

"I'm not sure." Shinji answered honestly. He thought he saw a flash of panic pass over Misato's face as she noticed the logo on the side of the briefcase, which Shinji hadn't really noticed before. He looked down at it to see a word imprinted onto the side of the case in big bold letters.

'Gehirn.' Shinji read silently to himself. He didn't know that name and yet somehow it seemed familiar, almost as if it were calling out to him. Shinji didn't know why, but he needed to find out what was inside.

* * *

Gendo stood in a dark room, filled with large black monoliths, each inscribed with a number and serving as a communicator to the corresponding member of SEELE, the international counsel in charge of many of the world's affairs including the actions of NERV. There were eleven monoliths in total, numbering from one through twelve with Gendo standing where number six would be.

"What news do you have to report?" The question came from the monolith marked as SEELE 01.

"Evangelion Unit-00 has finished its repairs and is now fully operational again." Gendo announced. "That means that the next time an Angel arrives, we will have two Evangelions ready to fight it."

"That is good news, and just in time for the next Angel to arrive as stated in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And after the next Angel arrives, we should consider transferring Unit-02 and its pilot to Tokyo-3 as well. How is production going on the other Evangelions?"

"Production on them is slow." Said SEELE 05. "We're constructing Units 3 through 5 right now. We should have them done by the end of the year, but its' too early to say for sure."

"It would be better if they were done sooner than that. Though, as long as our current pilots do well enough, we shouldn't need them for some time."

"Speaking of the pilots," Gendo interrupted. "I've gone over the list of candidates and I have some things I need to say."

"What is it?"

"One of the candidates, Ms. Kirishima, was recently in a horrible accident that has left her on the brink of death. I do not feel that she will be able to fill her duties in her current situation."

"I have heard of the girl's fate." SEELE 05 said. "We have a plan for that, though it will need approval."

"We will discuss the subject further when the girl's recovery has progressed. Is there anything else?"

"Yes." Gendo said. "I have seen that the fourth child has already been chosen and is on her way here. But we don't have an Evangelion for her to pilot yet and according to her reports, she failed the psychological tests. The girl is in no way stable enough to pilot an Evangelion even if we already had one for her."

"We already have a solution for that. The reports will be handed to you when she arrives."

* * *

Dr. Akagi walked along a garden pathway outside of NERV's central headquarters during her lunch break. Various flowers and shrubberies lined the pathway and there was a water fountain a little ways off. Four benches were lined up against the fountain, forming a square around it. One of the technicians was sitting on one of those benches, looking up at something.

"What are you doing?" Ritsuko asked the technician.

"Oh! Dr. Akagi!" A startled Maya Ibuki stood to attention and saluted her higher up. "I was just looking at those rings of light up there. What do you think they are?"

Dr. Akagi looked up where Maya was pointing and saw the two interlocking rings of light floating in a circle above Central Dogma.

"I don't know." Ritsuko said. "But there seems to be some correlation between their appearance and the Angel's deaths."

"Do you think more will show up as more Angels arrive?"

"It's too early to tell, but it does seem likely."

The two women looked up at the white rings in the air before looking down at each other for an awkward moment of silence. Maya shuffled her feet nervously before checking her watch.

"Well, I've got to go. My break's almost over."

Ritsuko didn't say anything as Maya left in a hurry and sat down on the bench, pulling out her lunch and a couple reports she wanted to go over.

"Weird girl." She muttered to herself. She then looked back up at the rings. "Although we should look into what those are and what they mean. They could be important.

* * *

As soon as Shinji returned home, he tossed his bags on the floor, placed his new violin resting against his nightstand. He then grabbed his music player off the nightstand, put on his headphones and turned it one as he sat down on his bed with the briefcase placed in front of him.

The black case was held shut by a latch on either side of the handle, which had no visible locks on them. Shinji placed his hands on the case to open it, resting his thumbs on the latches. It seemed like the latches lit up dimly for a second before the latches simply popped open and Shinji was able to open the briefcase to find it was actually some kind old computer.

"Well, that was easier than I expected. I wonder how no one was able to figure that out. The battery on this thing is probably dead, though." Shinji said to himself as he pressed the 'On' button to see if it still worked. The screen flashed as the computer opened onto an old text interface.

" _Hello, Shinji Ikari, it's good to finally meet you. How may I help you today?"_

Shinji was shocked as the text appeared onscreen. He reached down to the keyboard to enter a response.

"How do you know who I am?"

"This unit is locked by fingerprint scanners. You are one of the only two people authorized to use it."

"Who is the other one?"

"I'm afraid that information is confidential."

Shinji thought about this for a moment as questions started flowing into his brain. Who did this computer belong to? Why was he authorized to open it? What was GEHIRN? Finally, Shinji decided what to ask it.

"What is the purpose of this computer?"

" _It is a database of top secret and classified information from the organization known as GEHIRN left for your use. Unfortunately, most of the files are locked off for now, only to be opened when you are ready for them as determined by a special program. Unfortunately, that program won't work unless this unit is hooked up to NERV's central network."_

"What do I have access to right now?"

" _Right now? Only me, I'm afraid. I guess you could think of me as a personal digital assistant of sorts."_

"Are you some kind of prototype AI?"

"Sure, let's go with that for now. I'm a bit more complicated than that, but I can't go into detail until you've accessed the necessary files."

"But of course." Shinji said to himself as he leaned back on his bed. "I'm not sure if this will be useful or just a waste of my time." Shinji sat up again to find that the AI had typed something else.

"I suggest you work to access these files as soon as possible. They are very important a lot of them will concern you and what you are going."

Shinji reached down to the keyboard again and began typing.

"I'm going to have to think about this."

"Take your time. But if you wait too long, you may come to regret it."

With that, Shinji reached down and turned the computer off. He then shut the computer and slid it underneath his bed. Lying back on his bed again, Shinji considered what he had just learned. Someone had left this for him and against all odds, he had found it. But what information was on that computer? Why did he need to earn it if it was left specifically for him? These questions and more passed through the boy's head, but he had no answers for any of them.

"Now that I think about it…" Shinji muttered to himself. "Misato reacted strangely when she saw the GIHERN logo on it. I suppose I should start by trying to figure out what that actually is."

Shinji sighed and sat back up again. He took off his headphones and put his music player away again before getting up and reaching for his bags. He continued contemplating his current situation as he unpacked. He wasn't able to finish unpacking, however, before he was interrupted by a shrill hollow voice echoing through his mind.

 **-I am Ramiel. All who oppose the will of GOD shall be vanquished.-**


	6. Chapter 6

"So, what are we supposed to do to be able to stop that thing?" Shinji asked as he sat at Unit-01's controls. The purple and green Evangelion was positioned on top of a large hill just outside of Tokyo-3. Unit-00 stood beside it with Rei at its controls. This was the first time that they had both been deployed at the same time, but thanks to their constant virtual training it felt like they had done this countless times before. But not with an opponent like the one they faced now.

Ramiel was different than the previous Angels that Shinji had already fought and defeated. Sachiel and Shamshel had both been organic looking being that stood about as tall as an Evangelion and had sections of exposed bone covering their bodies. Ramiel had none of those features. Instead, the Angel looked more like some kind of giant blue diamond larger than a city block. If it weren't for the telltale red orb positioned in the center of the crystalline mass, Shinji wouldn't have even been able to recognize that Ramiel was an Angel at all.

Shinji's gaze flickered up to the small screen in the corner of his view that showed his fellow pilot. Rei seemed to be as cold and emotionless as ever. 'How can she possibly be so calm right now?' he thought silently to himself. Although a moment of consideration had him realize that just because Rei never showed any signs of emotion didn't mean that she didn't feel anything. A moment later, something else occurred to the pilot as well. The Angel was not actually doing anything other than just floating there ominously above the city.

"We're working on finding a plan now." Misato finally answered. "For now you should just-"

Misato's voice was suddenly drowned out by a loud screeching sound that was almost like metal scraping against metal, but not quite. Shinji was forced to tightly cover his ears as he winced from the pain. He could see on his screen that Rei was also covering her ears and that Misato had been forced to take off her headset on account of the harsh noise as well. Shinji then noticed where the sound was coming from.

The light reflecting off of Ramiel's surface seemed to ripple along its sides as the bottommost point of the Angel began to twist downward to form a very long and narrow ridged protrusion that he thought seemed suspiciously like a drill head. Shinji's suspicions were soon proven accurate as the drill continued to grow out until it reached the ground and the Angel began drilling a hole into the Earth.

The loud screeching made it hard to concentrate on that, however, and Shinji had to quickly move one of his hands from his ear and press a button on his console that muted Unit-01's external speakers. Shinji relaxed slightly as the sound quickly died out and he saw that Rei had done the same, though it was still not completely gone. The screeching was loud enough that it penetrated through the Evangelion's armor and reverberated throughout the Entry Plug, though was still not nearly as loud as it had been just a mere moment before.

"It looks like it's trying to drill into the ground." Misato had readjusted her headset so that she could no longer hear the sound either. "We need to stop it before it reaches the GeoFront!"

"But how are we supposed to do that?" Shinji asked frantically.

"We don't know for sure yet." Was Miasto's response. "But I guess the best thing to start with is to just try shooting at it for now."

Shinji could only sigh as he and Rei had to turn their Evangelions around and head over to the nearest weapons cache. Rei grabbed her preferred sniper rifle for Unit-00 while Shinji had to look over his various options before finally settling on a large machine gun to use. After arming themselves they returned to the hill to assume firing positions.

"Why didn't we just start with this?" Shinji muttered as he readied his Eva's gun while Rei had already managed to lay Unit-00 down onto its stomach in a sniping position.

Rei fired her gun straight at the Angel and an energy blast shot out of the rifle so fast it was hard to follow as it hit the Angel dead on. The attack didn't seem to have had any effect at first, but after a second, the Angel's drill stopped turning and retracted back into its body.

"Huh, I guess that actually worked." Shinji said.

However, as the drill finished retracting back into the Angel, Ramiel's entire form became to warp. The diamond shape twisted and turned as its upper and lower halves were pulled apart and the Angel formed an hourglass-like shape connected by its core, which started to glow bright red before the two halves merged back together. As the Angel reassumed its original diamond form, a beam of searing hot energy shot like a scaled-up version of the one Rei had fired at it shot out of the corner facing the two pilots.

Shinji only had a split second to react as the energy beam hurtled towards Unit-00. Without really thinking, he turned Unit-01 towards the other Evangelion and lunged forward, arms outstretched. He managed to knock her out of the way of the blast and the two rolled down the hill as the beam tore clean through the ground were Unit-00 had just been as if it were nothing at all.

"Okay, new plan." Misato said as the two stood their Evangelions back up again. "Don't shoot at the Angel."

"Yeah, that was kind of obvious." Shinji said as he looked at the massive hole where the energy beam had passed through the hillside. "But what do we do now?"

"Well," Misato began, "our analysis indicates that the Angel attacked by absorbing the energy of Rei's shot and spreading it along its body, magnifying the energy by over a hundred times its original power before launching it back."

Shinji wasn't sure how that was supposed to work, but this wasn't the time to argue science he didn't really understand at all. Instead, he just waited for Misato to continue.

"Maybe if we fire a powerful enough blast at it, we could overload the Angel and cause it to destroy itself when attempting to fire it back?"

"It's too risky." Rei pointed out. "We do not know how much power we would need to do that and if the attack was not strong enough then we would only make things worse. Also, we do not have enough time to gather the energy and attack. The Angel has already resumed drilling and Unit-00's Umbilical Cable was severed in the fall, leaving it with only five minutes of reserve power."

"It was just an idea." Misato said defensively.

"I have another plan." Said Rei.

"Well, what is it?"

"While the Angel was charging up its attack, it briefly left its core exposed for approximately 3.7 seconds. If Unit-01 can fire at the Angel and make it attack again, I should be able to make the shot and destroy the core while it is exposed."

"But if your plan doesn't work, you could be killed!" Shinji pointed out. "Or me. In fact, we would probably both die if this thing goes wrong!"

"The plan is not without risk." Rei agreed. "But you should have plenty of time to dodge the Angel's attack, seeing as you were able to save me from the last one, and I am expendable."

"Wait, what was that last part?"

"It doesn't look like we have any choice and were out of time." Misato said. "We're going to have to do it."

"This is crazy!" Shinji tried to argue.

"Yes, but do you have any other ideas?" Misato asked. "We only have a few minutes before the Angel will breach the GeoFront."

"Fine." Shinji finally relented. "But this had better work."

Shinji pointed his gun towards the Angel again and waited for Rei to get into position. As soon as Rei gave him the signal, he opened fire on Ramiel, sending a barrage of energy blasts crashing into the Angel. Like before, Ramiel stopped drilling and formed itself into an hourglass shape, but at the moment it reached the peak of its transformation and was about to crash back together again, Rei fired her gun again and the solitary bolt of energy reached its mark.

Ramiel did not react to the attack. The two halves of its hourglass-like form crashed back into each other like before. Shinji readied himself to dodge the ensuing attack, but no attack came. Shinji thought he could faintly hear the sound of an explosion as the Angel seemed to recoil in the air. Its body began to twist and contort violently for a moment as it slowly began to shrink around its core.

"Does this mean that we won?" Shinji asked.

"It looks like it." Misato said excitedly, but then her smile faded away. "Wait a minute, what's it doing now?"

Shinji watched as Ramiel began to charge towards them. He instinctively held his, or rather Unit-01's, arms to defend himself as the Angel came closer. However, it soon became clear that the Angel wasn't after him, it was going towards Rei. Rei did nothing to defend herself from it, however, as she could tell that it didn't have enough time to reach her and, sure enough, by the time Ramiel reached her, it had been reduced to nothing but its core which floated harmlessly and unmoving in front of her.

Unit-00 stood there unmoving as Ramiel's core floated in front of it. Rei then slowly raised Unit-00's arms up slowly around it and looked as if she was going to grab hold of the core between the Eva's hands. Shinji thought there was something majestic about the scene, but e moment was interrupted as the core suddenly exploded.

* * *

Rei looked around. She was drifting aimlessly through what seemed to be a clear blue sky, but there was no ground beneath her. Light filled everywhere, but there was no source for it to come from. In front of Rei was a familiar red sphere that she recognized instantly as the core of the Angel Ramiel.

"Where am I?" Rei asked aloud.

 **-That is an interesting question.-** The core responded. **-But I think you already know the answer to that, don't you?-**

"I am dreaming." Rei observed. "I have never had a dream before."

 **-Correct.-**

"You still have not explained why you are here."

 **-No, I have not.-**

"Then why are you here?" Rei asked the core.

 **-I am not sure that I can answer that question right now, Rei Deux. I believe that is a question you must answer for yourself.-**

"How do you know that name?"

 **-We are in your mind.-** Ramiel reminded her. **-It is only natural that I would know who you are, as well as what you are.-**

"You are not authorized to know that information."

 **-Are you sure about that? After all, I am a part of you now.-**

* * *

Shinji sat by Rei's bedside as she lay unconscious in the hospital, much like he had after the battle against Sachiel. He wondered briefly if she was having a dream similar to the one he had, but that thought was quickly interrupted as Misato walked into the room.

"How's she doing?" Misato asked.

"The doctor said she'll be fine." Shinji explained. "She just needs some time to rest and recover."

Misato stood in silence looking at the unconscious Rei before turning back to Shinji. "We've just gotten word Evangelion Unit-02 and its pilot are being transferred her. I've been asked to rendezvous with them and I was wondering if you would be willing to go with me. I thought it would be a good chance to get to know your fellow pilot before you have to work together."

"I would." Shinji said. "But I don't want to leave Rei while she's in this condition."

"That will not be an issue." Shinji almost jumped out of his chair as Rei suddenly sat up. "I will go with you."


	7. Chapter 7

Shinji adjusted the collar of his new jacket as he waited for Misato to finally arrive. This was was the first time that he had actually needed to wear his NERV uniform and he wasn't sure that he particularly cared for it. The uniform was similar in design to the one worn by his father, but it was purple with green trimming to match the coloration of Evangelion Unit-01. Rei stood beside him, wearing a blue and white version of the same uniform.

"Shouldn't your uniform be orange?" Shinji asked Rei, hoping to pass the time with conversation.

"Now that we will be working with the pilot of Unit-02, it has been decided that blue will be a more marketable color for Unit-00 than orange." Rei answered.

Shinji turned that idea around in his head but didn't really understand what she meant so he was about to ask her to clarify herself. However, just as he was about to open his mouth, Misato finally arrived.

"Sorry that I'm late." Misato said. "My alarm didn't go off this morning. Anyway, who's up for a three-hour helicopter ride?"

"Three hours?" Shinji sighed. "You've already kept us waiting here for over twenty minutes and now we have to spend that before we can even get where we're going?"

"I know it's not ideal." Misato said defensively. "But we need to meet up with the fleet and their still a long way out from shore."

"Why can't we just wait for them to get to us and meet then?"

"Because the helicopter is already ready to go and it would be a waste not to use it, plus they're already expecting us to arrive. Now come on, let's get going."

* * *

The sunlight reflected off of the unusually calm waters of the Pacific Ocean as a fleet of United Nations ships sailed along on their way to Japan. On the starboard deck of one of the ships in that fleet stood the girl known as Asuka Langley Sohryu, the second child chosen to pilot an Evangelion. She looked out at the shining waves as a flock of seagulls passed by overhead. Most people would find the view breathtaking, but Asuka found herself bored out of her mind.

"When are they finally going to get here?" She whined. "We've been waiting for hours."

"I'm sure they'll be here any minute now."

Asuka turned her head to look at the man that had just walked up beside her, Ryoji Kaji. He pulled a photograph out of his pocket and looked at it wistfully before folding it up and sticking it back. "You know, back when I was your age the ocean was blue."

Asuka rolled her eyes and turned back to the scarlet ocean. The idea of it being anything other than red just seemed silly to her, even if he already knew that it was true.

"Oh, look." Kaji suddenly said, pointing up to the sky towards a small dark object moving slowly towards them. "That must be them."

"It's about time." Asuka said with a mixture of relief and annoyance.

"Come on." Kaji said as he started to walk away, motioning for Asuka to follow him. "We should probably be waiting for them at the landing pad so that we can great them when they arrive."

"We've been waiting for them for ages." Asuka groaned "I don't see why we shouldn't make them wait for us."

"The world doesn't work like that." Kaji replied. "Or at least it shouldn't."

And with that, the two made their way over to the ship's landing pad as the helicopter slowly made its approach. Asuka and Kaji watched as the helicopter came closer and finally landed in front of them. The first person to get out was a girl Asuka's age with blue hair kept much shorter than Asuka's own reddish-brown hair. Asuka assumed that the girl must be Rei Ayanami, the first child. Which meant that the boy who clumsily climbed out after her must be Shinji, the third child. Asuka had wanted to meet these two, who she saw as her rivals, for quite some time. Seeing them now left her less than impressed. Asuka was just about to call out to them when a woman got out of the helicopter after them.

"Misato!" Kaji called out to the woman excitedly as he saw her.

"Um… hey, Ryoji." Was Misato's nervous reply. "It's been a while."

"I know that we all have important business that needs to be discussed." Kaji said. "But before that, I have something important that I need to say to you."

"What?" Misato asked hesitantly.

"After we broke up all of those years ago, my life went into a downward spiral." Kaji said calmly. "I've done… well, I've done a lot of things that I'm not proud of and I have more regrets than I can count."

"I don't think this is really the time or place to talk about-" Misato started to say, but was cut off as Kaji kept going.

"And it was just within this past year that I reached my lowest point. But then I got this," Kaji pulled out the photo he had been looking at earlier and held it up, showing that it was a picture of Misato, "along with a note that just said 'I want you.' Those words changed my life. They served as a reminder to me of the man that I used to be and helped me to completely turn my life around."

Misato looked at the photo with an expression of shock while Shinji made the connection that this was probably the picture that she meant to send to him before they first met and that Kaji was the person she said the other picture was meant for.

"I want to thank you for that." Kaji continued. "And to ask you something."

"What?" Misato asked hesitantly, with no idea of what it could be. Her eyes widened as Kaji suddenly dropped to one knee and pulled out a small, black case that fit in the palm of his hand and opened it up.

"Will you marry me?"

* * *

An awkward silence filled the ship's dining hall as Shinji, Rei and Asuka sat around a table in the otherwise empty room. Misato and Kaji had left them there so that the two of them could speak in private. Asuka noticed that Shinji seemed to be staring at the far wall while covering his right eye with his hand.

"What are you doing?" Asuka asked him in an annoyed tone.

"I'm still getting used to this eye." Shinji explained. "Right now I'm trying to test out the zoom feature."

"What are you talking about?"

"Shinji lost the use of his left eye due to an accident when piloting Unit-01 for the first time." Rei explained. "Doctor Akagi replaced the damaged eye with a cybernetic one as a form of apology."

"Without my permission." Shinji added bitterly.

Asuka looked back and forth between Shinji and Rei, waiting for some indication that they were messing with her, but it was clear that they were being serious.

"What kind of half-baked operation are you running over in Tokyo-3?" She asked.

"Not a very good one." Shinji answered.

"It is as efficient as can be managed with such a large scale operation under the pressures of the current situation." Rei said, almost reflexively.

"And to think that you two idiots have been hogging all of my glory." Asuka sighed as she leaned against the table.

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.

Asuka glared at Shinji. "I've been training to be the best possible Eva pilot my entire life and then you suddenly showed up out of nowhere right when an Angel finally appeared and the next thing you know, you've already taken down three Angels before I even get a chance to fight one!"

"I only killed the first two Angels." Shinji corrected her. "Rei took out the third one."

"You say that like I should care." Asuka leaned back in her chair and rested her hands behind her head. "I know that I'm the best pilot, but now everyone thinks that you're better than me just because you're the one who keeps happening to be wherever the Angels show up. I need to find a way to prove that I'm better than you… and I think I know exactly what to do."

"What?" Shinji asked, sure that he didn't really want to know the answer.

Asuka stood up and turned around, waving for Shinji and Rei to follow her. "Come on, we're going on a trip."

"Where?" Shinji asked as he stood up hesitantly.

"Unit-02." Asuka answered as she waited by the door for them to catch up with her. "But before that, we need to stop by the locker room to get changed. I've got a couple of spare plug suits that you two can borrow."

"I don't like where this is going." Shinji said as he walked up to where Asuka was standing.

"Too bad, I'm not really giving you a say in the matter." Asuka turned to Rei, who was still sitting at the table. "Come on, Blueberry, I don't have all day!"

"My name is Rei."

"I don't care. Your hair reminds me of a blueberry, so that's what I'm calling you. How do you even get it that color, anyway?"

"This is my natural hair color." Rei explained.

"Sure it is." Asuka rolled her eyes. "Just get over here."

Rei finally got up and walked over to them.

"Can we just get this over with?" Shinji asked Asuka as she opened the door to leave.

"Sure, Cyclops." She said jokingly.

"That was just mean."

"Is this the face of someone who cares?" Asuka asked him mockingly. "No. Because it's my face and I don't care."

With that, the trio made their way outside and back onto the upper deck of the ship. Shinji attention was drawn to a large tan tarp covering a large cargo area built into the middle of the ship but didn't have time to ask about it before they reached the entrance to the locker room and went inside. He had a pretty good idea what was under it, anyway.

Asuka pulled out a large duffle bag and rifled through it. After a moment she pulled out three red plug suits, tossing one of Rei, one at Shinji and keeping the third for herself.

"Come on." She said impatiently, "We don't have all day."

"You don't really expect me to wear this, do you?" Shinji asked, holding up the plug suit.

"What's wrong with it?" Asuka asked defensively.

Shinji motioned towards the upper torso of the plug suit, which was molded to fit over Asuka's breasts. "I'm not a girl."

Asuka sighed. "Oh, just suck it up, Cyclops! I don't exactly like how form fitting it is either, you know."

"But at least it's meant to fit your form."

Asuka glared at Shinji.

"Okay, fine."

Shinji walked behind a row of lockers to change in private. A few minutes later he returned, wearing the red and orange plug suit, which happened to fit him fairly well, apart from the chest area which was definitely designed to fit a much more feminine figure than his own.

"I feel like a girl." He grumbled as he looked over to see Asuka and Rei.

Asuka's plug suit fit her perfectly, which was to be expected since it was specifically tailored for her to begin with. Rei's, on the other hand, seemed rather tight, especially around her breasts. Now that he thought about it, Shinji realized that Rei's normal plug suit also seemed to be a bit too tight for her and he wondered why that was.

"And what's so wrong about being a girl, exactly?" Asuka asked Shinji angrily.

"Nothing." Shinji sighed. Let's just get this over with."

"Right."

Asuka grabbed Rei and Shinji by their arms and walked back outside, dragging them along. Much as Shinji had expected, she brought them over to the tarp that he had noticed earlier and lifted it up so they could crawl under it to where Unit-02 was being stored. They climbed up the back of the red Evangelion and into an entry plug that sticking out of its neck, waiting to be used. The three all took a large breath to fill their lungs with LCL once they were inside of it and swam over to the controls, which Asuka sat down at while Shinji and Rei had to hold on to the sides of her seat.

"Now what?" Shinji asked.

"What do you mean, 'now what'?" Asuka replied.

"I mean, what do we do now? You never actually told us what you wanted to do."

"We turn her on, of course." Asuka said as she pressed a button on the control panel, activating the Evangelion. The entry plug lit up and the screen in front of them powered on to show the underside of the tarp over them. Asuka was just about to say something when error messages started popping up all over the screen.

"I didn't think about this." Asuka said. "Quick, you two need to start thinking in German!"

"I don't know German!" Shinji yelled back at her.

"Fine, then."Asuka grumbled angrily as she started fiddling with the controls. After a few seconds, the error messages went away. "There, I changed the language settings to-"

Before Asuka could finish her sentence, she was cut off by a sudden shock that went through her system, which Shinji and Rei also felt. They were all paralyzed as the world seemed to fade away around them and they found themselves somewhere else entirely as mental images flashed through their minds.

* * *

A young Shinji stood in a hallway, holding the hand of his father. He looked up at Gendo, who was staring through the window in front of them, a look of pride visible in his eyes through his glasses. Shinji turned to see what his father was looking at and his eyes widened at the sight Evangelion Unit-01. The massive purple giant's eyes lit up green as is it was activated for the very first time.

"We've finally done it." Gendo said triumphantly.

Unit-01's eyes suddenly turned red. Shinji heard a woman's scream as Gendo's grip on Shinji's hand suddenly tightened his smile turned to a look of absolute horror.

"No!" He shouted as he rushed up to the window and started pounding on the glass in desperation, letting go of Shinji in the process.

Then everything faded away to black and a new scene took its place.

Asuka skipped down a white hallway. She was so excited to tell her mother the great news. She had finally been chosen as the second Evangelion pilot. She turned a corner and stood in front of a large white door. She raised her hand up to the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door open with a huge grin on her face. A grin that quickly faded away as she saw the body, hanging limply from a ceiling fan, a rope tied around the neck.

Asuka fell down onto the hospital floor as she gazed up at her mother's corpse. She couldn't bear to take in what she saw and she could not look away. There was something grotesquely peaceful about the expression on her mother's face, something that filled her with disgust, but not nearly as much as what hung beside her. The doll. That stupid doll. The doll that had taken her place in her mother's illness. Her insanity.

Asuka's fear turned to anger and everything faded away to black as a new scene took its place.

Rei looked out from inside her tank, taking in everything around her. A man paced back and forth from one side of the room to the other, muttering to himself.

"No, this isn't right. She's not right. Why isn't she the same? She should be the same. Did I do something wrong? I did everything the same as the first time, what could have gone wrong?"

Gendo Ikari stopped pacing right in front of Rei's tank and stared at her intently. The dim light reflected off of his glasses in such a way that she could see nothing behind the dark orange lenses. And yet she could feel his malice. She wasn't good enough for him and she never would be.

Then everything faded to black.

* * *

Asuka sat at Unit-02's controls, staring at her open hands in shock. "What was that?" She asked as she turned to look at the others.

"I don't know." Shinji muttered, gripping the top of Asuka's seat so tightly that he felt like his fingers might fall off. His cybernetic left eye shifted wildly between a variety of colors as it zoomed in and out. "Those felt like memories… but… they couldn't have been. I never saw Unit-01 before I came to Tokyo-3, I've never seen that woman before and I don't even know what was going on in that last one."

"That woman was my mother." Asuka shifted uncomfortably. "I know I was the one who found her, but I never actually remembered what happened after that. The doctors said that I had suppressed it due to the trauma."

"Wait, what? But wouldn't that mean that part with Unit-01 actually happened? How would that even be possible? What about you, Rei, what do you think? Rei?"

Rei drifted away from them through the LCL. Her eyes were wide open but unfocused. She made no signs of movement, even as her head bumped against the side of the Entry Plug.

"But if we all saw them, then they couldn't have been memories." Asuka pointed out. "How would we have been able to see into each other's minds like that, let alone see things that we don't even remember happened?"

"I don't know, but what else could it have been." Shinji shrugged. "Either way, it looks like Misato's not very happy about it."

"What? What makes you say that?"

Shinji pointed to the screen in front of her and Asuka turned back around to see it. She was greeted by the sight of Misato staring up at them from the deck of the ship. Apparently, Unit-02 had shifted around in such a way that it had knocked the tarp off, giving away the fact that they had gone into it without permission."

"Ah, shoot." Asuka muttered under her breath. "We're done for."

"At least no one lost an eye." Shinji tried to lighten the mood. "I think. Actually, it looks like my robot one may have stopped working."

* * *

"What were you thinking?" Misato yelled furiously as Shinji, Asuka and Rei once they were back in the mess hall, still wearing Asuka's plug suits. "Do you have any idea what you could have just done?"

Asuka looked up at Misato, unsure of how to respond. She took a deep breath and was about to try and come up with some kind of excuse when Shinji suddenly spoke instead.

"No." Shinji stated simply. "We didn't have any idea of what could have happened. In fact, we're not entirely sure what _did_ just happen. How could we have even known that having all of us in the Eva would cause whatever just happened to us?"

Misato stared at him blankly with a look of confusion. "What are you talking about?" She asked, puzzled by that reaction.

"What were you talking about?" Asuka asked in return.

"I was talking about how you could have capsized the whole ship if you weren't careful. What were you even doing?"

"What were we doing?" Asuka wondered aloud.

"I think you wanted to prove that you had a better synchronization than us or something. It's kind of a blur now, though, after what happened."

"What did happen?" Misato asked. Shinji and Asuka both looked away, not wanting to meet Misato's gaze or answer her question. So Misato turned to rei and asked again. "What happened in there?"

"I don't know." Rei muttered the first words she had spoken since the incident.

Misato stared at her in confusion and Shinji turned to face Rei.

"Wait, did you just use a contraction?" He asked, surprised. "Since when do you use contractions."


	8. Chapter 8

After the United Nations fleet finally reached Japan and the ship they were on was able to dock safely at the harbor closest to Tokyo-3 without any trouble, Shinji and Rei were dropped off at their apartment along with Asuka. Unfortunately for Shinji and Rei, their new roommate was not a light packer by any means and they had to help her carry all of her luggage all of the way up to the top floor of the building on their own. A trip that was made even worse by the fact that the elevators were under maintenance, meaning that they had to carry her heavy suitcases up twenty-nine flights of stairs.

"Why do you have so much stuff?" Shinji asked in exasperation as they finally reached their floor. "And why does this building have to be so tall? Aren't we the only people who actually live here? Why do they even need a thirty story building if their only going to use the top floor?"

Asuka glared at Shinji indignantly and scoffed at him in response to his first question. "That's none of your business."

"The architect who designed this building was known for his eccentricities." Rei explained. "This was deemed the only apartment in the building to be suitable by NERV, so it is the only one in use."

"Wait, what's wrong with the other ones?" Shinji wondered aloud.

"I don't know." Rei shrugged as she set down one of the suitcases she was carrying just outside the door to their apartment so that she could pull her key out of her pocket to unlock the door. "Perhaps if we asked nicely, we could get the keys to the other apartments so that we could see?"

"That almost sounded like a joke." Shinji noted. "Who are you and what have you done with Rei?"

Rei shrugged again as she opened the door and picked up the suitcase before heading inside. Asuka went in after her, followed by Shinji.

"Home sweet home." Shinji muttered sarcastically.

"Well, this is certainly nicer than I was expecting." Asuka said as she looked around. "When I was told I was going to have to room with you two, I started to get worried."

"Yeah, I'm not really sure why they're making us all share this apartment, either."

"The original plan was that we would each get our own room in the old building." Rei explained. "But after the building was destroyed during Sachiel's attack it was decided that we should all be moved here instead as this is also one of the most heavily fortified buildings in the city."

Rei led the others into the empty bedroom at the far end of the hallway and they all set down the various bags and suitcases they had been carrying. Asuka then walked over to the bed positioned in the far corner of the room and sat down on the edge of the mattress.

"Now what?" She asked.

"Well, I think I'm going to go pull my eye out." Shinji said as he went back into the hallway and headed for the bathroom.

"That something that I never thought that I would ever hear someone say." Asuka remarked.

A moment later, Shinji returned wearing a black eyepatch over where his left eye used to be. He nearly walked into the door frame as he reentered the room.

"That felt weird." Shinji said, mostly to himself. "I think that's the first time that I've actually had to take that thing out since I got it."

"Gross." Asuka said with disgust. "But I do like the eyepatch. Maybe I should get one of my own."

"I wouldn't recommend it." Shinji replied. "It's not worth losing an eye for."

"No, I suppose that it wouldn't be." Asuka absently lifted her hand up to her own left eye.

"You can take your cybernetic eye back to Doctor Akagi when we head back to Central Dogma later." Rei pointed out.

"I know." Shinji sighed. "But I'd rather have my _actual_ eye back. The robot one just feels different somehow. I'm not sure if I can really explain it, though. It's just… different."

"I can't say that I know what that's like." Asuka commented. "Although for some reason I feel like I understand what you're saying. It's weird."

"Unfortunately, there isn't a way for you to get your original eye back." Rei said.

"I know." Shinji leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. "And seriously, what's up with you? You've been acting different ever since we got back."

"I don't know." Rei stared down at her open hands. "Ever since we synched with Unit-02 together, I've just… felt… different."

"I know what you mean." Asuka nodded in agreement. "There's just been something off ever since then. Do you think that something happened to us?"

"How should I know?" Shinji asked defensively. "I have no idea what happened back there. "How should I know?" Shinji asked defensively. "I have no idea what happened back there. Those images… like memories… going through my… _our_ heads."

"Do you think that we're…" Asuka paused for a moment. "Do you think that we've been… connected, somehow?"

"What?" Shinji asked, confused. "What do you mean 'connected'?"

"I suppose that it's possible." Rei said, "When we synchronized with Unit-02 at the same time, we may have also synchronized with each other in the process. It would explain those flashes of each other's memory that we saw during the synchronization process as well as the alterations in our behavior since then."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shinji was now even more confused. "And how would that work?"

"I don't know how." Rei replied. "But it is the only explanation that I can think of. Our minds must have been linked together somehow which caused us to see glimpses of our pasts. The experience may have also caused us to have some level of influence over each other's personalities and minds, which would account for the changes in our behavior."

"I'm just going to pretend that I think any of that could be possible." Shinji said.

"But if that's the case, then are we really even us anymore?" Asuka asked.

"I don't know." Rei shook her head. "This is all just pure speculation on my part and I honestly don't know how much, if any, of what I'm saying is true."

"I suppose it would explain why I suddenly feel like I know Deutch now." Shinji commented. "Er, I mean German."

"You had it right the first time." Asuka smiled. "And I doubt an idiot like you would know that, so I'll take it as proof."

"Okay, but even if that is what happened, what about those things we saw? We keep calling them memories, but I know that I've never seen Unit-01 before I came to Tokyo-3. I think that I would remember seeing it when I was a kid."

"Maybe." Asuka said. "But maybe not. I don't remember finding my mom's body after she killed herself, but I know it happened. I had to see a therapist for over a year because of it and the trauma apparently caused me to suppress the memory."

"I doubt it." Shinji shook his head. "What could have been so traumatic about seeing a giant robot? Young me would have been ecstatic to see something like that."

"Well, it did look like something had gone wrong." Asuka pointed out. "And there was the scream right before the memory cut off."

Shinji thought about it for a moment. "I didn't recognize the voice, though. If anything, it sounded like an older Rei, but that makes even less sense than anything else."

Rei shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter that much right now." Asuka sighed. "What we should be focused on finding a way to fix this… _thing_ that's happened to us, so that we can go back to being us again."

"I don't want to."

Both Shinji and Asuka stared at Rei in surprise and confusion.

"What do you mean that you don't want to?" Asuka asked angrily.

"I don't want to go back to being what I was before." Rei looked like she was about ready to cry, which threw Shinji off since he wasn't used to her showing any sign of emotion.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "Why wouldn't you want to be yourself again?"

"I wasn't myself." Rei slowly fell to her knees, trying her hardest not to break down. "I was just what I was supposed to be."

Shinji and Asuka looked down at her in stunned silence, not sure how to react.

"For the first time…" Rei couldn't hold back her tears any longer. "For the first time, I feel… I feel something. I feel… real. I'm not just a… a puppet anymore. For the first time… I feel like a person."

Shinji and Asuka glanced at each other worriedly. They had no idea what Rei was talking about and yet, somehow, they knew exactly what she was talking about. Eventually, Shinji went over to Rei and sat down beside her, placing an arm around her shoulder as comfortingly as he could manage. It felt weird since Shinji normally didn't like touching people any more than what was necessary. Asuka almost laughed at how awkward and sappy it looked seeing them like that but instead felt that she should get up and sit down again next to Rei as well, placing her own arm around Rei's other shoulder.

"I just…" Rei continued, barely able to speak. "I've always been like a… like a puppet. I'm just… I've always been… I was just a tool… a tool in his plans. And I don't… don't want… to go back to that. For the first time… I feel… I feel terrible… but… that's better… This is better than before… It's better than nothing. It's better than what I was."

Shinji and Asuka sat there in silence, doing their best to comfort Rei as she continued to cry for the first time in her existence. They were like that for what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, before they were interrupted by something unwanted that filled them with dread, particularly Asuka, who had never experienced it before.

 **-I am Matarael. All who oppose the will of GOD shall be vanquished.-**


	9. Chapter 9

"What's going on?" Asuka practically fell off the side of her bed as she jumped up to her feet.

"It sounds like an Angel just arrived." Shinji answered with a sigh of exasperation. "They announce themselves like that whenever they show up."

"What are you talking about?" Asuka asked in total confusion. "Angel's aren't supposed to be able to speak!"

"We're the only ones who can hear them." Rei replied. "Our connection to our Evangelions gives us that ability."

"Well, why is this the first I'm hearing of it?"

"No one else knows." Shinji shrugged as he turned to leave into the hallway. "I mentioned to Misato after I defeated Sachiel, the first Angel I fought, and she had no idea what I was talking about. I think she thought it was just the stress from piloting an Eva for the first time mixed with a possible concussion."

The three pilots left Asuka's room and headed out of their apartment. They rushed down the stairs back to the first floor and ran out onto the streets just as all of the buildings began to sink into the ground around them.

"What now?" Asuka asked.

"The city's going under lockdown protocols because of the attack." Rei explained. "All of the buildings are being retracted into the GeoFront for safety."

"They can do that?" Asuka couldn't believe it.

"If there's one thing I've learned since coming to this city, it's to not question these kinds of things. I stopped understanding what's going on a long time ago."

Just then, an old blue car drove up and half-hazardly pulled up in front of the three preteens. The car nearly ran into them in the process, forcing them to jump out of the way. Shinji and Asuka both landed face-first on the sidewalk while Rei managed to fall gently onto a patch of grass just in front of where there apartment building normally was. The driver's window of the beat-up looking car rolled down and Misato stuck her head out.

"There's an Angel attacking the city!" She yelled at the trio as they got back up.

"Verdammt!" Asuka yelled back angrily. "What's wrong with you!"

"We already knew about the Angel." Shinji held his nose tightly as he spoke. He was pretty sure it was bleeding but he didn't want to check.

"Oh." Misato looked apologetic. "Well, get in! I'm taking you back to Central Dogma so that you can get suited up and in your Evas."

"I feel like we'd have better odds fighting the Angel unarmed than riding with you." Shinji sighed.

"I didn't quite catch that." Misato said. "And what happened to your eye?"

"Nothing!" Shinji shouted. "Let's just go!"

* * *

Matarael walked across Tokyo-3 like some kind of giant spider. Its four long black legs protruded from a small black body covered in triangular eye-like designs. The Angel didn't seem to be as openly hostile as some of the other Angel's had been. It eventually stopped as it reached the center of the city, standing directly above where Central Dogma was down below the surface. Matarael stood still for a moment before a glob of orange goo dripped down from its central eye and fell to the ground, followed by another and another. Each drop of acid corroded the ground beneath Matarael as it was apparently trying to hole into the GeoFront. It wasn't long after the Angel had begun secreting its acid that Unit-01 and Unit-02 rose up from the ground nearby.

"Is that… an Illuminati spider?" Asuka wondered aloud as she got her first look at the Angel.

"Angels are weird." Shinji replied. "The first one I fought had a bird skull for a face and another has basically a giant blue diamond. I'm not really sure how these things are supposed to be related to each other."

"Stop talking and kill that thing already!" Misato yelled at them. "I hate spiders."

"You know that spiders have eight legs, right?" Shinji asked. "That thing only has four."

"Where's the other girl?" Asuka turned Unit-02 to look around for Rei.

"Unit-00 is undergoing repairs from when it was damaged when the last Angel attacked, so it will just be the two of you for now." Misato said.

"Not that it really matters." Asuka shrugged. "I could easily take this thing down on my own."

Asuka pulled out a Pallet Rifle from the weapons cache that had been lifted to the surface along with the Evangelions and ran off towards Matarael. Shinji simply sighed and grabbed his own rifle before walking along after her. Matarael didn't seem to react to the Evangelions at first but as soon as Asuka started firing at it the Angel stopped its acidic assault against the ground and sprang into action. Asuka and Shinji were both startled to see the Angel dart off in the opposite direction from them at a much faster speed than they would have expected from it.

"Did… did it just run away?" Asuka asked, dumbfounded.

"That's certainly a new reaction." Shinji said. "I guess you're attitude scared it off."

"Ha, ha, very funny." Asuka said sarcastically. "What do we do now?"

"You're the one who said you could beat it on your own." Shinji pointed out. "Why don't you come up with the plan?"

"Fine." Asuka said indignantly. "I'll try to pin the Angel down long enough for you to snipe it from a distance."

"I can think of two problems with that plan. First, our power cords mean that we don't have much range to move around and catch that thing. Second, I don't think you want me firing a gun in your direction right now." Shinji pointed to the black eyepatch over his left eye so that Asuka would see it clearly over the video feed. "I'm kind of lacking in the depth perception field right now. I'd be just as likely to hit you as the Angel."

"Well fine, what do you think we should-Aah!" Asuka's angry reply was cut off as Matarael suddenly came up from behind them and climbed over Unit-02. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Unit-02 started flailing its arms around wildly, dropping the rifle it was carrying as Asuka tried to get the spider-like Angel off of her Evangelion. Shinji sprang into action by having Unit-01 leap forward and grab one of Matarael's legs, dropping his own rifle in the process. He clung on to it as the Angel flailed about and ran off, dragging the Eva along with it.

"Don't just stand there!" Shinji yelled as Unit-01 was dragged along the ground like a ragdoll. "Shoot it!"

"R-right." Asuka said as she grabbed both guns off the ground and started firing wildly at Matarael, which was slowed down just enough by Unit-01 to let her actually hit it.

The Angel gave out a hideous shriek and recoiled just long enough for Shinji to grab onto a second leg and suplex the giant spider-like Angel, pinning it to the ground upside down. He dug the heel of one of Unit-01's feat into Matarael's central body and pulled hard on the two legs he was holding. After a moment the Angel's strength seemed to give out and both legs were torn clean off. Now out of Unit-01's grasp, Matarael was able to flip itself upright and try to limp away with its remaining two legs. It wasn't able to go very fast, however, and Shinji was easily able to grab it and pull the injured Angel off of the ground. He turned around to face Asuka in Unit-02.

"Do you want the honors?" Shinji barely had enough time to finish his question before Asuka opened fire on the Angel he was holding, emptying out both rifles as she riddled it with holes.

"I win!" Asuka declared as she lifted both of Unit-02's arms up in a gesture of victory.

"What's your problem?" Shinji asked as he dropped what was left of Matarael onto the ground. "You could have hit me!"

"But I didn't." Asuka pointed out.

"Ugh, whatever." Shinji sighed. "Let's just head back now."

* * *

"Good job out there." Misato said once Shinji and Asuka were out of their Evangelions. "We weren't really sure how well you'd be able to work together on your first time but you didn't manage to completely mess it up."

"What are you talking about?" Asuka asked her. "That was a complete mess."

"Yeah, but to be honest we were expecting even worse." Misato explained.

"Thank you for that shining vote of confidence." Shinji replied sarcastically.

"Well, you've both just met and haven't been able to train together yet." Misato pointed out. "Not to mention that Asuka just got here and hasn't settled in yet and it hasn't been very long since the last Angel attacked."

"I guess." Shinji conceded. "And I don't think anyone got hurt this time, so that's a bonus."

"At least not during the fight." Asuka added. "I feel like I still have a few bruises from the ride here. How do you even have a license?"

Misato looked a bit flustered and turned away.

"Wait a minute." Asuka realized something. "You don't have a driver's license, do you?"

"Misato's face turned a bright shade of red. "Tokyo-3 is under NERV's supervision and is classified as private property. As such, it doesn't matter whether if my license was revoked or not."

"That explains so much." Shinji said. "And yet it opens up so many questions."

"Just drop it." Misato ordered them.

"Fine, fine." Asuka raised her hands in a show of mock defeat. "But I think we'll be walking home, thank you very much."

"I wasn't even planning on giving you a ride back anyway!" Misato yelled angrily.

"Good!"

"Can we all just calm down." Shinji said. "We just beat another Angel, let's celebrate or something. I don't know."

"Speaking of celebrations…" Asuka said slyly to Misato. "You didn't tell us what your answer to Kaji was."

Misato's red returned to being red, which contrasted heavily with her dark blue hair.

"Come on, spill the beans." Asuka goaded her. "You gettin' hitched or what?"

"Y-yes." Misato turned around and left in a hurry.

"You'd think that she'd be excited over getting engaged." Shinji said as he and Asuka walked back to the locker room.

"Who knows?" Asuka shrugged. "It's not like it's our business."

"You're the one who brought it up." Shinji pointed out. "And don't you have a crush on Kaji or something?"

"Who told you that?" Asuka snapped at him.

"No one told me!" Shinji said defensively. "I don't know why I know that, I just do. It's probably from whatever happened back on the boat."

"Oh, right." Asuka calmed down as they entered the locker room, where Rei was waiting.

"How did it go?" The blue-haired girl asked them.

"Piece of cake." Asuka gloated as she walked up to her locker and started to change back into her regular clothes.

"It could have gone better." Shinji replied as he did the same. "I'd just like to go home now and get some rest. It's been a long day and we have school tomorrow."

"Bleh." Asuka stuck her tongue out in disgust at the idea of school.

"Hopefully nobody tries to punch you on your first day of school." Shinji said as he pulled his pants on.

"Why would anyone do that?"

"I don't know but it happened to me."

Asuka couldn't help but laugh, turning to look at Shinji who happened to turn around at the same time. They stared at each other for a moment, an awkward tension filling the room as all three teens suddenly realized that Asuka hadn't put her top on yet.

"D-don't look, idiot!" Asuka through something at Shinji angrily, only to realize too late that it was the pink tank top that she hadn't put on yet.

"I-I'm sorry!" Shinji blurted out as he fell back onto the floor, landing hard on his rear with his face covered by the tank top.

"Stupid Cyclops!" Asuka growled as she stormed over to Shinji and yanked her top away from him, putting it on hastily.

Meanwhile, Rei stood there watching this whole scene unfold in front of her, completely unsure of how to react to any of it. "Um, should we be heading out now?"


	10. Chapter 10

**-Welcome back to Angel Talk with Sachiel. I'm your host, Sachiel, and for tonight's guests, we have the three Evangelion pilots currently stationed in the city of Tokyo-3 joining us.-**

The sound of canned applause filled the room. Shinji felt a bit uncomfortable, sandwiched between Rei and Asuka on the same two-seat purple couch he had sat in last time he was here.

"Please don't tell me we're sharing dreams now." Shinji grumbled.

"What's going on here?" Asuka demanded to know as she shoved Shinji further into Rei so that she could have more room.

"I don't know exactly." Shinji pushed her back. "I think it has something to do with as beating the Angels."

"I believe that if our Evangelions absorb part of an Angel's core when we defeat one, our mental connection to the Evas causes a mental copy of the Angel to be imprinted into our subconscious." Rei explained.

 **-Got it in one. Although thanks to your little accident with Evangelion Unit-02, your subconsciouses have been linked together so that we're all here now, even if our cores weren't absorbed.-**

Sachiel waved his hand towards the black abyss where an audience would be. A light turned on, revealing Shamshel, Ramiel and Matarael. They were each significantly smaller than they had been when fought, but still noticeably larger than a human would be.

"Why?" Asuka asked.

 **-Hey, now. I'm the host here, so why don't you leave the questions to me?-**

"Um…"

 **-Anyway, how about you all share your opinions of your fellow pilots. Why don't you start, Shinji?-**

"Well…" Shinji thought for a moment. "Rei's nice, I guess. I found her a bit disconcerting at first because of how stoic and… well… machine-like she used to be. But I got used to it after a while and now it's a bit weird seeing her start to open up more recently. Though I guess it is kind of nice that she's more willing to express herself now. I can't really say the same about Asuka, though. She's just kind of a b-"

Shinji had to hold back a yelp as Asuka stomped on his foot, inadvertently proving the point he was in the middle of making.

"A bully." The strain in his voice was apparent as he finished his sentence despite the pain.

 **-Well, I can certainly see what you mean. What about you, Rei?-**

The formerly emotionless girl's cheeks had turned almost as red as her eyes after hearing Shinji's comments about her.

"Um, well… Shinji's nice and…" Rei couldn't hide how flustered she was and stared down at her knees as she blurted out the rest of her thought faster than anyone had ever heard her talk before. "He's the only friend I've ever had."

The room was filled with an awkward silence for a moment before Rei continued, still unable to look up from her own lap.

"I haven't known Asuka for very long but… after what happened I just feel… a connection. Like I can open up to her. To both of them. I'm not used to feeling… anything, but it's nice."

Rei was finally able to look up, giving a weak and unsure smile to her fellow pilots. Her partners. Shinji responded with a warm, understanding smile and held her hand for emotional support. This warranted Asuka to stomp on his foot again, killing the moment instantly.

 **-Well, that's certainly nice to hear. Now, last but certainly not least, let's hear from Asuka.-**

"Personally I don't see why I even have to put up with these two losers. I'm the best pilot there is and these two are just unnecessary baggage as far as I'm concerned." The feisty redhead made a triumphant gesture, placing her hands on her hips and elbowing Shinji in the ribs in the process. "Ya hear that moan? It's the sound of weakness!"

 **-Well okay, then.-** The angelic host seemed unsure of how to react to that. **-Then I guess we'll move on to the next question that I'm sure that's on everyone's minds: how do you feel about everyone else at NERV?-**

"They're all a bunch of screw-ups." Asuka didn't hesitate to answer.

"I can't disagree with that." Shinji held his hand up to his left eye, almost surprised to realize that it was actually there. Though he realized that was probably because this was a dream or something.

Rei nodded silently.

"I mean, Misato means well, I guess." Shinji said. "And Dr. Akagi's pretty good at her job, all things considering. I can't really say anything about anyone else, though. Those are basically the only people there I even know other than my dad and… let's just say that there's some bad history there."

The room was filled, once again, with silence for a moment. This time of the uncomfortable variety. That is until Rei found the courage to speak up and say something that she had never intended to say.

"I hate Mr. Ikari. I hate him. And everything that he's ever done to me."

 **-Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have for tonight, but I hope that you'll all join us next time for Angel Talk with Sachiel!-**

* * *

Shinji groaned as he sat up in bed. His leg was asleep and he had a splitting pain in his ribs. He opened his eyes, or rather, his eye, and glanced over at his alarm clock. There were only a couple of minutes left until it was set to go off, so he hit the off switch on the alarm and grabbed the eye patch he had left lying next to it.

Just as he had finished putting the eye patch over his empty left socket, the door to Shinji's room swung open. Asuka stood there in a very elegant red nightgown that was falling off one shoulder and a look of outrage on her face.

"What in the name of Nietzche's schnurrbart was that?" She yelled at him.

Shinji leaned forward and crossed his arms over his lap. "W-what was what?" He stammered.

"Don't act like you don't know!" Asuka was a bit confused by his gesture.

"It would appear that we all shared the same dream." Rei walked up behind Asuka, squeezing a dab of toothpaste onto her toothbrush as she spoke. "Which would suggest that our minds are still linked together somehow, rather than having just been a one-off connection."

"What the teufel, Rei!" Asuka exclaimed as she turned to face the other girl. "Have you never heard of pajamas?"

"Do we really have to be talking about this right now?" Shinji asked, an uncomfortable look on his face as he shut his good eye and crossed his legs tightly. "This really doesn't seem like the breast time. Best! It's not the best time!"

Asuka glared at Shinji for a moment and slowly turned as red as her nightgown as she suddenly realized why he seemed to be acting strangely.

"You pig!" She yelled as she slammed the door shut.

Shinji opened his eye slowly and relaxed. He was sure that the other boys in his class would be jealous of his current housing situation. He wasn't sure that it was something to be jealous of, though. Being forced to live with two girls his own age was proving to be much harder than he would have ever suspected it would be.

"Oh, well. Could be worse." Shinji sighed as he stood up. "At least I only have to put up with just the two of them."

* * *

In a dark room on the other side of the planet, the sound of loud crunching could be heard. The door opened, releasing light into the room, revealing a girl sitting in the corner, stroking a cat with one hand while her other hand was deep in an almost empty bag of off-brand cheese puffs.

"Get up, Mari! We just got word that you're going to be getting transferred soon, so you need to get ready..." The man who entered the room trailed off as he saw Mari in the corner. He sighed walked over the nightstand positioned next to Mari's bed and grabbed an empty pill bottle sitting on top of it. He read the label and sighed before turning back to Mari. "You know you need to stick to your prescriptions."

"You can't tell me what to do, Mike!" Mari pointed at the man with an accusatory finger that would have seemed much more dramatic if it wasn't covered in orange powder.

"Telling you what to do is quite literally my job." Mike pointed out in a tone that showed they have had this conversation many times before. "And it's Lieutenant Stringham! Now get dressed!"

"Make me!" Mari screamed.

Lt. Stringham sighed again and pocketed the small plastic bottle before walking up to Mari. He pulled a gun out of the holster at his waist and pointed it casually at Mari's head.

"I said, get dressed."

"Never!"

Lt. Stringham pulled the trigger and Mari's cat ran under the bed. Mari herself jumped up and hissed at him, water running down her face. Lt. Stringham sprayed her in the face again with his squirt gun and Mari dove towards her dresser.

"All right, all right!" She yelped pathetically. "You win."

"Good." Lt. Stringham holstered his squirt gun and headed for the door. "And remember, if I catch you taking anything other than your meds again I'm revoking your snack privileges for a month!"

Mari grumbled a bit as Lt. Stringham closed the door behind him. Her cat came out from under the bed and rubbed up against her legs while Mari pulled her glasses off the top of her dresser and put them on.

"Transferred, huh?" Mari wondered aloud as she bent down to pet her cat again. "It feels like we just got here. What was even the point of coming to Russia if they're just sending us out again? Oh well, at least I'll always have you, Mr. Ms. Fluffikins."

* * *

"Man, you really need to lighten this place up a bit." Kaji said as he walked into Gendo's office. "Seriously, why's it so dark in here?"

"Did you bring what I asked you for?" Gendo was in no mood to chat.

"Yeah, I've got it right here." Kaji pulled a small, innocuous box out of his pocket and tossed it carelessly onto Gendo's desk.

"Be careful with that!" Gendo snapped.

"What's it going to do?" Kaji shrugged. "End the world? It's already about 15 years too late for that."

"And here I thought that you of all people would want to avoid accidentally destroying what's left."

"I suppose you're right." Kaji gave a slightly embarrassed grin.

"Congratulation, by the way." Gendo softened his voice a little, though it was barely noticeable. "Have you set a date yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Well, I would suggest having the wedding sooner, rather than later. There's no telling how much time we all have left." Gendo said ominously.

"So it's true then. Those geezers are really going through with it."

"I don't know what you're talking about." It was clear that Gendo knew exactly what he was talking about.

"You know what I mean." Kaji said angrily. "SEELE."

"Keep your voice down." Gendo demanded a hushed whisper. "And how would you know anything about that?"

"Let's just say that I have friends in high places." Kaji shrugged.

"I know. I'm one of them. But you don't have friends _that_ high."

"Are you sure about that?" Kaji asked mischievously. "Because from what I hear, it sounds like you're one of them now."

Gendo paused. "That's none of your concern."

"None of my concern?" Kaji asked incredulously as he walked over to the side table where Gendo kept a considerable collection of brandy and poured himself a glass. "This is everyone's concern!"

"I thought you were going straight." Gendo changed the subject.

Kaji looked down at the glass he had just taken a sip from, then back up at Gendo. "Look, I've given up a lot of vices lately. Gambling, drugs… women… men. But alcohol isn't one of them. There's only so much I quite without losing it."

"I can certainly understand that." Gendo said as Kaji took another sip. "We are nothing but the prisons we make for ourselves."

"Always such a downer." Kaji downed the rest of his drink and placed the empty glass back down. "Well, I should head back before the future missus notices I'm gone."

With that, Kaji turned and walked out of the dimly lit office. Now that he was alone, Gendo picked up the small box Kaji had left. He opened it carefully, revealing the precious contents that he had spent the past decade and a half trying to get his hands on. It looked almost like some kind of deformed embryo encased in an amber-like substance.

"Adam."


	11. Chapter 11

Shinji shuddered as he downed a glass of LCL.

"I don't think that I'll ever get used to this stuff." He said. "It still tastes like blood no matter how much Tang they put in it."

"Stop whining, you lousy cyclops." Asuka slammed her own empty glass on the dining room table. "When's breakfast going to be ready?"

"It'll be done when it's done." Shinji sighed and turned back to the eggs he was frying. "And... I think it's done."

"It's about time." Asuka said impatiently.

Shinji served up three plates and placed them around the dining room table, where Asuka and Rei were waiting. Asuka immediately started scarfing down her food before Shinji even had a chance to sit down. After Shinji took a seat and began to eat his own breakfast, he noticed that Rei was barely touching her food. She just seemed to be staring blankly down at the table.

"What's wrong?" Shinji was concerned.

"N-nothing." Rei shook her head to snap back to her senses before picking up her fork. "I was just lost in thought."

The three then ate in relative silence for a while, but Shinji couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off. There was a burning question that had been digging in the back of his mind all morning and eventually he just had to ask it.

"What has my father done to you?"

Rei looked up at Shinji, startled by the question. It also caught Asuka's attention and caused her to look up from the last bit of egg still left on her plate.

"What do you mean?" Rei asked, her shoulders stiffening up.

"You said that you hated him because of everything that he's done to you." Shinji said. "In the dream that we all shared last night."

Rei didn't reply at first.

"I suppose that it would be easier to say what he hasn't done." Rei turned her gaze to the far wall and shuddered. "But… I'd rather not talk about it right now."

Shinji and Asuka stared at Rei, unsure of how to react. Rei's reaction only served to make them both more curious and more concerned. However, they could both tell that they shouldn't press her anymore on this, so they dropped the subject.

"I, uh… suppose we should probably head out soon." Shinji said awkwardly after a while, glancing down at his watch. "It would be bad for you to be late on your first day of school."

"Like I care." Asuka sat back in her chair and folded her arms. "But whatever. Not like I have anything else to do."

* * *

"Good morning, class."

"Good morning, Mr. Furusei." Hikari was the only student to return the teacher's greeting, as per usual.

"We have another new student today." Mr. Furusei said with forced enthusiasm and gestured towards Asuka as she strutted into the room. "Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"

Asuka grinned smugly at the teacher, did a completely unnecessary twirl and assumed an overly dramatic pose. "I… am Asuka Langley Sohryu, the greatest person to ever grace this verlassene country with my presence."

"Very good." Mr. Furusei sighed. "Now why don't you go find an empty seat? That shouldn't be too hard considering how empty this class has become."

Asuka walked across the classroom and planted herself in the chair next to Shinji's, as Mr. Furusei started a lecture about how life was so much better before the world ended. From there, things progressed as normal, with Toji arriving about an hour late and Mr. Furusei ranting until the lunch bell rang. The elderly teacher then left in such a hurry that he left his glasses on his desk.

"Where do you think he goes?" Toji wondered aloud, leaning back in his chair.

"The teacher's lounge?" Hikari suggested. "Where else would he go? By the way, my name is Hikari Horaki, class president."

Hikari smiled at Asuka and held out her hand. Asuka glared at her for a moment before shaking it.

"Mind if I just call you Light?" Asuka asked sarcastically.

"I would mind that, actually." Hikari said politely. "Hikari will do just fine."

"And I'm Kensuke." Kensuke adjusted his glasses as he introduced himself. "And this lug head over here is Toji."

"What did you call me?" Toji shouted angrily.

Asuka glanced around the room. "So, did everyone else ditch class or what? Shouldn't there be, like, anyone else here?"

"You know, now that I think about I'm pretty sure there were a few more students in this class when I got here." Shinji pondered for a moment. "Though to be honest, none of them ever really stood out to me that much. I don't think I even really noticed they were gone."

"So it's really just the six of us, then?" Asuka couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What the teufel?"

"Everyone else moved away." Hikari explained. "Having giant monsters attack the city every few months isn't exactly something that makes people want to stay here. The only reason _I'm_ even still here is because my family can't afford to move right now."

"Same." Toji put his feet up on his desk, only for Hikari to push them back off.

"My dad gets most of his business through NERV, so we don't really have a reason to move." Kensuke chimed in.

"We don't even know what we're going to be doing next year." Hikari sighed. "We're supposed to be moving up to high school, except they already close down the high school because there weren't any students."

"Whoo! I can't wait!" Toji shouted. "That means after this we'll have no more school."

"Please don't say that." Hikari shuddered. "I can't bear to think what it would mean if we weren't able to finish our educations. Our lives would be ruined."

"It's not that even matters anymore." Kensuke pointed out. "In the world we live in, I doubt most employers would even care if went to high school or not. It's like there's as much competition for jobs as there used to be when the population's been reduced to less than half what it was before Second Impact."

"You're starting to sound like one of Mr. Furusei's lectures." Toji complained.

"I'm just saying…" Kensuke held his hands up in a mock gesture of defeat. "It's not like we really learn all that much in school anyway."

Asuka leaned over to Shinji and whispered into his hear. "Are they always like this?"

"More or less." Shinji whispered back.

"By the way," Kensuke adjusted his glasses again. "I was wondering if anyone wanted to go camping this weekend. I know a great spot just outside the city."

"That's kind of short notice." Hikari pointed out. "Why all of a sudden?"

"I dunno." Kensuke shrugged. "I always go camping up in the mountains when my dad's out on one of his business meetings and I just figured that it might be fun to invite you guys this time."

"Bro, you know I'm up for it." Toji gave a thumbs-up.

"Great!" Kensuke returned the gesture. "Anyone else?"

"Sure, why not." Shinji shrugged. "Could be fun. Or at the very least a brief change of scenery."

"I've never gone camping before." Rei looked down at her desk. "I would like to try it."

"Well, if you two losers are going then I _guess_ I might as well go too." Asuka rolled her eyes. "Couldn't be worse than spending the whole weekend alone."

Hikari sighed. "And I suppose I can't leave all of you out there alone without any supervision, so I'll come along to make sure none of you get into any trouble.

"Alright!" Kensuke smiled. "We can meet up after class on Friday. We can hike over to the campground from here. It'll be great!"

"Hike?" Asuka repeated the word.

"Yeah, how else would we get there?" Kensuke asked.

"Sounds like the new girl is afraid of a little walking." Toji laughed.

Asuka stood up and walked over to Toji, placed a firm hand on his shoulder and bent down to face him at eye level. "What. Was. That."

"N-nothing." Toji whimpered.

"And I think that's enough of that." Shinji said as he jumped up from his chair. "You really don't need to get into a fight on your first day of school."

"Yeah, not like Shinji here." Toji said mockingly, regaining his composure. "Someone decked him in the face his first day."

"That was you." Hikari pointed out, frustrated with the way he seemed to be bragging about it.

"I know. That's what makes it funny."

"I didn't find it funny." Shinji objected.

"Also, didn't Rei nearly break your arm right after that?" Kensuke asked, causing Toji to look away in embarrassment.

"Wait, what?" Asuka burst out in laughter and pointed to Rei with her thumb. "This pipsqueak?"

"I hold black belts in judo, karate and taekwondo." Rei said with surprising humbleness, causing everyone to stare at her for a moment.

"Is that what happened to Shinji's eye?" Kensuke joked.

"What?" Shinji looked at him blankly.

"Dude, you're wearing an eye patch!" Toji's tone indicated that he hadn't even noticed it until then. "What's up with that?"

"I was wondering that myself." Hikari added. "But I thought that it would be rude to ask.

Shinji absently reached up to the black patch covering his left eye. "Oh, yeah. Forgot I was wearing this. My robot eye-thingy stopped working yesterday."

"Your what-now?" Toji, Kensuke and Hikari looked even more confused than before.

"Did I… not tell you guys about that?" Shinji asked.

"No." Hikari replied.

"Oh. Uh, yeah." Shinji was surprised to hear that this apparently hadn't come up before. "I lost my eye when I fought that Angel back when I first got here, so they gave me a replacement. Are you sure I haven't mentioned this before?"

"I think I would remember something like that." Kensuke said.

"Dude, that means you've had a robot eye the entire time that we've known you." Toji was clearly trying to wrap his head around this revelation. "That's so cool."

"Not really." Shinji shrugged, a bit embarrassed by the sudden attention. "Personally, I would rather still have my real eye, but whatever. Nothing I can do about it now."

"Well, this conversation sure went off track." Asuka pointed out.

"Yeah." Kensuke agreed. "We're all still up for that camping trip though, right?"

"Of course." Toji gave another thumbs up.

"Yeah." Shinji smiled.

"Yes." Rei nodded.

"Eh, sure." Asuka shrugged.

"It looks like it." Hikari said.

"Great!" Kensuke headed back to his seat. "This'll be fun."


End file.
